Obituaries

18 April 2001 |

Victor Jones
Victor Jones, a professor emeritus of political science who helped found the Association of Bay Area Governments and was a pioneer in the academic study of metropolitan governments, died suddenly on April 1 at his home in Oakland. He was 92.

His seminal work, “Metropolitan Government” (University of Chicago Press), first published in 1942, laid the groundwork for the generation that studied post-war metropolitan governance issues.

His lifelong commitment to regional government was most tangibly realized with the founding of the Association of Bay Area Governments in 1961. Jones, along with Bay Area mayors, city managers and the League of California Cities, pushed for the formation of an agency that would address regional issues such as air and water quality, open space and solid waste disposal.

Known for his courtly southern air and accent, Jones was born in Birmingham, Ala., on Jan. 14, 1909. He received his bachelor’s degree from Howard College, now Samford University, in Birmingham, in 1932; and his Ph.D. in government from the University of Chicago in 1939.

He came to Berkeley in 1938 as a research associate at the campus’s Bureau of Public Administration, now known as the Institute of Governmental Studies. He became a full professor in the political science department in 1955 and served briefly as department chair before retiring in 1976.

Jones, who never learned to drive, would take the bus to campus and attend seminars at the institute and generally make himself available to any student seeking insight and advice.

Jones is survived by his wife of 66 years, Annie Mae Crumpton Jones; a son, David Crumpton Jones (a musician professionally known as David Serva) of Madrid, Spain; a daughter, Patricia Ungern of Berkeley; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

A family gathering is planned, and a celebration of Jones’s life will be held on campus at a later date. Donations in his memory may be made to the Institute of Governmental Studies, 109 Moses Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-2370.

Margie Beltran
Human Resources Inreach/Outreach Coordinator Margie Beltran died April 4 in Sacramento after a long illness. Beltran began work at Berkeley in March 1999 but has served the UC system since 1980.

As director of Student Support Services at UC Davis, she focused on diverse student outreach, recruitment, and program development. She is credited with more than doubling the number of minority physicians graduating from the UC Davis School of Medicine.

At Berkeley, Beltran worked to increase the representation of people of color, women, veterans, and people with disabilities in the applicant pools for staff positions. Energetic and passionate, she coordinated the first campus job fair for internal applicants, developed numerous community contacts, partnered with Community Relations on the Summer Youth Employment Program, and provided career counseling to many staff. She brought a warm spirit and vitality to her work and to her colleagues.

Beltran is survived by her daughter, Cristina Beltran; her mother, a sister and four brothers.

Wendy Sussman
Figurative painter Wendy Sussman, a professor of art practice, died of cancer on March 29, near her home in Oakland. She was 51.

In her large-scale canvases, diminutive figures materialize within vast fields of layered paint, deepening the metaphysical questions her paintings raise about the pressure of time and space on our mortality.

A passionate artist and inspirational teacher, Sussman was considered by many to be the “soul” of the Department of Art Practice.

Said Charles Altieri, former chair of that department, “You could always depend on Wendy to tell the truth. During her critiques, more than anyone else, she got to the core of the work.”

“I always use the analogy of a pool that has frozen over,” Sussman told an art and literary journal in March 1996. “The finished painting is like that. So, in the pool at the lower depth might be a rock, and then there might be a little leaf that is frozen closer to the surface, and above that maybe a candy wrapper. It’s all frozen in the pool, and then on the very top somebody comes and skates. The surface has this history, and that is time, the time of the painting.”

Born in Brooklyn, Sussman earned her M.F.A. from Brooklyn College in 1979 and taught at the Pratt Institute in New York. She began her career as a realist painter, inspired by Leonard Anderson, Paul Georges and Philip Pearlstein, fellow painters with whom she conversed during meetings of the New York Figurative Alliance, a group established in the 1960s to preserve and extend the tradition of figurative art in an aesthetic milieu dominated by abstract expressionism and conceptual art.

She is survived by her husband of 30 years, Juan Rodriguez, and their 14-year-old son, Gabriel Sussman Rodriguez. A remembrance and celebration of her life is being planned for early May. For information, contact the Department of Art Practice at 642-2582.

In lieu of flowers, donations for Gabriel’s education may be sent to “Squeak Carnwath, Custodian for Gabriel Sussman Rodriguez, Account #101-039818-590”, c/o Douglas E. Treter, Morgan Stanley, 101 California St., P.O. Box 7805, San Francisco, Calif., 94120-9647.