David C. Favor

Honorary Degrees
 
 

David C. FavorDavid C. Favor

Founder, Victor Treatment Centers

California State University, Chico

David C. Favor is the founder of Victor Treatment Centers, North Valley Schools and Victor Community Support Services, three nonprofit corporations specializing in residential care and treatment for seriously emotionally disturbed children in California. They serve hundreds of children who cannot succeed in public schools, or who need in-home treatment and services to keep families together.

After the death of his mother at age five, he spent two years at an institutional orphanage. Later placed in foster homes, Mr. Favor came to stay with Al and Marion Phillips, his unofficial foster parents. They showed him love, understanding, the meaning of a real home and helped him develop self-confidence. Mr. Favor became determined to ensure that vulnerable children would not be locked up in institutional settings. He dedicated himself to making sure children are treated with compassion and respect in comfortable, unlocked settings, and given the education and life-skills necessary to lead productive, successful lives.

Mr. Favor's mission has been to develop an unlocked treatment option for every child in a California mental hospital. This goal was finally accomplished when he founded the first residential treatment program designed specifically for deaf children, who were the last children housed in California's mental health facilities.

Mr. Favor served as Director of Mental Health Services for Lassen, Modoc, and Plumas counties from 1969 through 1983. Every day he traveled from Chico to different rural mountain towns by becoming a pilot and flying his own plane through almost every kind of weather.

He has served as president and chairman on a wide variety of governmental committees to help draft state legislation to support treatment for the welfare of children. He earned a bachelor of science in sociology and psychology from Washington State University and a master's in psychiatric social work from the University of Washington. He is a licensed clinical social worker.

In recognition of his generosity, insight and dedication that has enriched the lives of thousands of children and families in California for 40 years, the Board of Trustees of the California State University and California State University, Chico are proud to confer upon David C. Favor the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.