Obituaries

Lincoln Constance

11 July 2001 |

Lincoln Constance
Lincoln Constance, a botanist and administrative leader at Berkeley, died of respiratory failure after a brief illness on Monday, June 11, at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley. He was 92.

Constance was professor emeritus of botany and an expert on plants of the parsley family. During his six-decade career, he served as director of the University Herbarium and as president of the California Academy of Sciences.

He held the post of dean of the College of Letters & Science from 1955 to 1962, and served as vice chancellor for academic affairs from 1962 to 1965. His tenure as vice chancellor coincided with the turbulent free speech years. He served as acting chancellor at various times, including a brief period before Roger Heyns became chancellor in 1965. He retired in 1976.

Born in Eugene, Oregon, on Feb. 16, 1909, Constance graduated from the University of Oregon in 1930 and entered Berkeley as a graduate student in botany. He studied under Willis Linn Jepson, the author of the first systematic survey of California plants.

After obtaining his Ph.D. in botany in 1934, Constance spent three years at Washington State College (now Washington State University) before returning to Berkeley as an assistant professor in 1937. He subsequently became curator of seed plants in the University Herbarium, then chair of the department of botany from 1954 to 1955, and finally director of the University Herbarium for 12 years, from 1963 to 1975. He was trustee of the Jepson Herbarium, founded in 1950 for the study and collection of California flora, from 1960 until his death, and helped oversee the editing of a new edition of Jepson’s 1925 “Manual of the Flowering Plants of California,” which was published in 1993 as “The Jepson Manual, Higher Plants of California.”

He is survived by his son, William, of Berkeley, and a niece, Nancy Constance Doornink, of Springfield, Ore. His wife, Sara “Sally” Luten Constance of Oregon, died in 1991.

A memorial service will be held in September. The family requests that donations in his memory be sent to the UC Botanical Garden or the University Herbarium.

Anne Watkins
Dr. E. Anne Watkins, a longtime physician at Cowell hospital, the former home of University Health Services, died May 24, 2001.

Watkins worked at Cowell Hospital from 1963 to 1992 in the Inpatient Department, the Outpatient Clinics, Acute Care Clinic, and with the Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Program. She also taught medical students and held a clinical faculty appointment at UC San Francisco. A trained pediatric cardiologist, Watkins had a passion for sports medicine, orthopedics and all manners of surgical procedures.

She was known for her adventurous spirit, decisiveness, vibrant personality and commitment to women’s sports.

Watkins graduated from Berkeley in 1954 and Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1958. She did her pediatric residency and pediatric cardiology fellowship at Children’s Hospital in Oakland. She volunteered to bring medical care to the underserved on the SS Hope in Peru in 1963 and in Africa in 1965.

Memorial contributions can be made to Doctors Without Borders and the Oakland SPCA. Send contributions to Doctors Without Borders, P.O. Box 94, Toms River, N.J., 08754-9900, or to the Oakland SPCA, 8323 Baldwin, Oakland, Calif., 94621.