[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 201 (Thursday, December 20, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1698-E1699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF BILL NEWSOM
______
HON. NANCY PELOSI
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I include the following obituary from the
San Francisco Chronicle honoring Bill Newsom:
Justice William A. (``Bill'') Newsom, paterfamilias of a
pioneering San Francisco family and a revered figure to his
children, grandchildren and expansive clan, ardent defender
of the environment, longtime San Francisco civic leader and
retired Justice of the California Court of Appeal, died on
December 12 from complications of old age.
Bill was a brilliant man of letters and linguistic genius
who could bend the English language to his will like few
others. Avuncular and sweet-natured, possessed of a wry and
irreverent wit, fluent in French and Italian, a master of
allusion and superb with impressions and accents, he was
unexcelled as a raconteur and bard. He was devoted to an
astounding variety of literary and intellectual pursuits,
peripatetic in his extensive travels, and indefatigable in
his commitments to civic and charitable endeavors,
particularly to conservation and environmental causes. A
noted bibliophile and oenophile, he frequently combined those
loves with a third, his great love of music, particularly
opera. Bill liked his poets Irish, but his food Italian. He
possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of natural history and
natural science and loved adventuring in the out of doors
with family and friends locally in California, on the
Colorado River through he Grand Canyon, in Alaska, Africa and
beyond. He was an irrepressible patron of lost causes who
almost invariably took up on behalf of the underdog and the
``little guy.'' His empathy and compassion were perpetually
on display; it would be foolhardy to try to catalogue his
countless initiatives on behalf of the unfortunate, the
downtrodden and the wronged, much less his constant
individual acts of kindness. It is perhaps best simply to
observe that never did someone come to him for help and leave
without it.
A wonderful father to his own children and ``Papapapap'' to
his six grandchildren, Bill was also a superb builder and
cultivator of family. Be it in Squaw Valley (a central
gathering-place for the extended Newsom clan since the 1960
Winter Olympics), at the Monte Vista Inn or his treasured
mountain retreat in Dutch Flat, or on any of innumerable
family trips, he was never happier than when surrounded by
family in conviviality, holding court with a fire roaring,
recounting adventures and tales, offering unforgettable
impersonations, describing the San Francisco of his (and his
father's) youth, quoting Chesterton and Belloc, Yeats and
Heaney. Bill adored children and they in turn were drawn to
him as to the Pied Piper. He related to them in the most
authentic and endearing way, not speaking at them but with
them, neither at his level nor theirs, but in some kind of
magical blarney in between that riveted them, made them
laugh, and yet taught them something at every turn. They left
his company--usually holding an armful of books, and some
money--knowing he was their ally, including especially in
whatever mischief they might be planning with his consent, or
perhaps even his connivance. (Bill loved to tweak the
establishment, even if that meant the parents of his co-
conspirators!).
A fourth-generation San Franciscan, Bill was born into a
large Irish Catholic brood in Depression-era San Francisco on
February 15, 1934 and raised on Jefferson St. at Baker, in
the shadow of the Palace of Fine Arts. He was the second and
last surviving of six children (Carole A. Onorato, Belinda B.
(``Barbara'') Newsom, Brennan J. Newsom, Sharon C. Mohun,
Patrick J. Newsom) born to William A. Newsom, Jr. and
Christine Newsom. Bill's parents were Mission District Irish.
His father, William A. Newsom, Jr., (b. 1902) was a developer
and civic leader who survived the 1906 earthquake and was
closely associated with the late Gov. Edmund G. (``Pat'')
Brown. Bill's paternal grandfather, also William A. Newsom,
born in San Francisco in 1865, was a contractor and early
city father who later became an associate of A.P. Giannini
and opened the first branch office of the Bank of America at
29th and Mission Streets in San Francisco. His maternal
grandfather (b. 1872) was a longshoreman on the San Francisco
waterfront who had made his way from Ireland to San Francisco
in the 1880s.
Bill was privileged to have a superb education, first under
the tutelage of the good Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange and
the French Marists (most of sturdy Breton stock) at Ecole
Notre Dame des Victoires, then under the Jesuits at St.
Ignatius High School, from which he was graduated in 1951. It
was at SI that Bill first encountered many of his boon
companions, including Lloyd Fabbri, Lou Felder, Gordon Getty,
Paul Getty, Jim Halligan, Chris Malarkey, John Mallen and
many more. Bill received his undergraduate degree in French
Literature from the University of San Francisco in 1955; a
Masters in English Literature from Stanford in 1961; and his
law degree from Stanford in 1960.
Bill married the former Tessa Menzies in 1966. They were
blessed with the birth of a son, Gavin, in 1967 and a
daughter, Hilary, in 1968. While Bill and Tessa were divorced
in 1973, they maintained a close, familial relationship for
the rest of their lives.
In his professional life, Bill was a Commissioner of the
San Francisco Superior Court following law school before
entering private practice as an attorney, first with the
Lillick firm in San Francisco (1963-1965), then as an
associate of the celebrated San Francisco trial attorney,
James Martin Macinnis (1965-1966), and finally opening his
own private law practice in Tahoe City, CA (1967-1975). He
also served as an attorney for Getty Oil Italiana (based in
Rome) in the late 1960s. Bill was appointed by Gov. Jerry
Brown first to the Placer County Superior Court in 1975, and
subsequently to the California Court of Appeals (First
Appellate District) in March 1978. He retired from the Court
of Appeal in 1995.
Throughout his adult life, Bill served as a legal and
business advisor to his great childhood friends, Gordon P.
Getty and J. Paul (``Paul'') Getty, Jr., and later to many
other members of the Getty family. Among other formal roles,
he served as Trustee of the Ronald Family Getty Trust from
1988 to 2011; as Trust Administrator for the Gordon Getty
Family Trust from 1994 to 2009; and as a Director and
President of the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation from 2011
until his passing. However, his most valuable service was in
his informal capacity as a trusted confidant and, first and
foremost, a friend. Bill played an important role in the
negotiations for the release of Paul Getty's son, J. Paul
Getty III, following his kidnapping in 1973.
At one time he considered a career in politics, but Bill
lost his first race for the State Senate in 1968. (When asked
why he lost, his answer was usually: ``Because I ran against
the unbeatable Milton Marks.'') Despite a later movement to
draft him as a mayoral candidate in the early 1980s, Bill had
come to see himself in roles outside politics.
[[Page E1699]]
Bill's civic and charitable commitments were substantial.
He served on the Board of Regents of the University of Santa
Clara; the Board of Directors of the International Bioethics
Institute, and on the boards of numerous environmental
organizations including Earthjustice (San Francisco),
Environmental Defense Fund (New York and San Francisco),
Friends of the River (Sacramento), Sierra Watch (Nevada City)
and the Mountain Lion Foundation (Sacramento). A visionary
conservationist from an early age, he was an avid supporter
of dozens of individuals and organizations working to protect
our public resources--clean air, clean water, biodiversity,
wildlife and wild places, especially our forests, rivers, and
oceans.
Bill was endowed with great decency and humanity; indeed,
these were his defining traits. He took the Golden Rule
literally, regarding indignities to others as indignities to
himself. A close friend from Bill's youth used to say of him
that ``the milk of human kindness flows by the quart in every
vein.''
Sometimes we lose someone whose passing makes it seem like
an entire era is washed away. Bill was a proto-San Franciscan
who often spoke of a city we sometimes now see only through a
gauzy lens, where civic virtue, pride and neighborliness
predominated; boasting a vibrant waterfront and teeming with
middle class families; led by citizens who, Republican or
Democrat, shared many core values; and having colorful
characters at every turn. He was certain that he lived in the
most magical place possible and, as was said of one of Bill's
literary heroes, Belloc, ``No man of his time fought so hard
for the good things.''
He is survived by his beloved children of whom he was so
proud, governor-elect Gavin Christopher Newsom and his wife
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and Hilary Callan Newsom and her
husband, Geoff Callan; his grandchildren, Talitha and Siena
Callan and Montana, Hunter, Brooklynn and Dutch Newsom; his
sisters-in-law, Cindy Asner, Cathy Newsom Goodman, Franza
Newsom and Anne Scherer; his brother-in-law, Ronald V.
Pelosi; a passel of nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and
grand-nephews in the Mohun, Fink, Newsom, Onorato, Pelosi and
Scherer families; many beloved cousins and relations; and his
legion of dear friends, including Gordon and Ann Getty and
other, lifelong companions such as Jim Halligan and John
Mallen; his longtime personal assistant, Lisa Belforte; and
so many others. In addition to his siblings, Bill was
predeceased by his former wife, Tessa Newsom.
Private services and burial to be held near Bill's longtime
home in the community of Dutch Flat, CA. In lieu of flowers,
the family suggests donations to the Justice William Newsom
Fund at the San Francisco Foundation
(www.justicewilliamnewsomfund.org), which will be used to
carry on Bill's legacy of environmental stewardship for
generations to come, or to your favorite charity.
``When You to Acheron's Ugly Water Come . . .
Then go before them like a royal ghost
And tread like Egypt or like Carthage crowned;
Because in your Mortality the most
Of all we may inherit has been found--
Children for memory: the Faith for pride.
Good land to leave: and young Love satisfied''
Requiescat in pace.
____________________