Remembering Tony Placzek, adventurer, optimist, real estate investment broker
Born in London shortly after his Austrian-Czech mother escaped the Nazis, Tony Placzek lost many relatives to the camps and sought later in life to uncover his family’s remarkable lost history.
Remembering Alice Philipson, activist lawyer who persuaded courts to recognize lesbian parents
Philipson and her spouse, Petra Liljestrand, were among the first lesbian couples to have a child via donor insemination.
Remembering Jerry Budrick, Chez Panisse maitre d’ and partner, author, ‘Scrabble fanatic’
Budrick wrote a book about his experiences as one of Chez Panisse’s earliest employees. In his youth, he sang in the Army and sold fur coats from the back of a VW Bug.
Remembering Neil Mayer, first director of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development
In the 1980s, Mayer co-founded the nonprofit Resources for Community Development, which has provided homes for more than 5,000 people.
Remembering Dr. Bayard Allmond, pediatrician, gardener, gorilla vaccinator
Allmond co-wrote ‘The Family Is the Patient,’ a foundational text in behavioral pediatrics. In his youth, he fought a gorilla polio outbreak.
Remembering Arthur Carson, poet, sound artist, linguist, ESL teacher
Arthur Carson spent three years at a remote Forest Service lookout, sang all over Berkeley and co-created the Nightletter Theater.
As part of our service to the community, Berkeleyside is honored to publish, at no charge, obituaries of members of the Berkeley community. Email a Google or Word document with the text and photo(s), preferably JPGs at least 1,200 px in width by 900 px in height, to editors@berkeleyside.org.