He also served as the efficiency director of the city's Department of Water and Power for Los Angeles before World War II.

Dykstra was appointed by President Roosevelt to chair the 11-member National Defense Mediation Board, an effort to settle wartime disputes.

[3] Because Dykstra had already served as a university president before coming to UCLA, he "was incensed at what he considered demeaning treatment of the provost by UC’s universitywide administration".

[4] His "death on the job was a galvanizing event at UCLA and among the southern regents" which fueled political momentum towards decentralization of the university bureaucracy.

Dykstra Hall, which opened in 1959, was the first structure in UCLA's current undergraduate residential community.