He had previously served as the director of Stony Brook Sanatorium in Kern County before moving to Livermore.

Closure of the asylum commenced on July 1, 1960, after authorization of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, with the last patients being removed in August 1960.

[6] Upon closure the remaining 90 patients were moved to the tuberculosis ward at Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro.

In 1976, a nonprofit organization named Buenas Vidas Youth Ranch leased part of the asylum grounds to use as center for their activities.

Volunteers cleaned up part of the campus grounds and also renovated one of the buildings near the main entrance, renaming it the "Rienecker House" after a Livermore High School student who was killed in an automobile accident the previous year.