Established as a California Community College in 1965 following voter approval, Ohlone College serves the cities of Fremont and Newark and parts of Union City in the southeast region of the San Francisco Bay area. The Ohlone Community College District is a single college district with two campuses and a thriving e-campus. Officially named Ohlone College on June 18, 1967, the institution honors the early Ohlone who lived in the Fremont and Newark area and much of the surrounding San Francisco Bay for hundreds of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. A Board of Trustees was elected in 1966, which then hired the founding president, Dr. Stephen Epler, in June 1966. The college opened in fall 1967 at the Serra Center, a temporary site on Washington Boulevard. Eventually the college went out to the community for a $10 million bond and in 1972 began construction of the new Ohlone College campus on Mission Boulevard in Fremont. Ernest J. Kump designed the original nine buildings that make up the academic village. Buildings added later to the campus include the performing arts center, the technology center, the child development center and the student services center. A second campus was constructed in Newark, CA, The Ohlone College Newark Center for Health Sciences and Technology, which opened in 2008. Including Dr. Epler, Ohlone has had only six presidents in its 45+ year history. The current president is Dr. Gari Browning, Ohlone's first female president.

The mission of Ohlone College is to serve the community by offering instruction for basic skills, career entry, university transfer, economic development, and personal enrichment for all who can benefit from our instruction in an environment where student learning success is highly valued, supported, and continually assessed.

Terry Alderete (1945-2013), businesswoman Andy Bloom (* 1973), shot putter Glenn Dishman (* 1970), baseball pitcher Brian Dunning (* 1965), author Larry Johannessen (1947-2009), author Lev Kirshner (* 1969), soccer player and coach Kenney Mencher (* 1965), painter Anjuli Papineau, Soccer player and soul singer Gary Plummer (* 1960), American footballer

2 campuses (Fremont and Newark)