William K. Coblentz

1922 - 2010

William K. Coblentz, a San Francisco attorney with a storied career of unsurpassed impact in legal, civic and political circles, passed away early on September 13, 2010. He was 88.

Over the course of more than 60 years in law practice, Mr. Coblentz attracted a host of high-profile clients – from Patty Hearst to the Getty family to the McClatchy newspapers. While he gained a reputation for deftly handling sensitive legal engagements, he also accumulated a series of accomplishments and contacts in civic and political affairs that extended beyond the Bay Area to the state and national spheres. Throughout the decades in which he was widely acknowledged as one of California's most powerful lawyers, he was equally renowned for his humor, humility and candor.

A true son of San Francisco, Mr. Coblentz was born in the city, and he graduated from Lowell High School. In 1943, he received his bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley, the beginning of a lifelong commitment to the University of California. After serving in the Army, he attended Yale University Law School, graduating in 1947.

Mr. Coblentz held the position of special counsel to Governor Edmund "Pat" Brown from 1959 to 1962, serving alongside future Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Governor Brown subsequently appointed him to the University of California Regents, where he served from 1964 to 1980, the last two years as Chairman.

Mr. Coblentz was an early adviser to both Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. As Mayor of San Francisco, Feinstein appointed him to be a founding member of the San Francisco Airport Commission. He remained on the Commission until 1986, and the new SFO International Terminal 2 boarding area will be dedicated next year as the Coblentz Concourse. Over the decades, Mr. Coblentz remained a friend and adviser to both Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer.

Mr. Coblentz started his private law career with the venerable San Francisco firm Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, but in 1955 he joined the two-lawyer firm then called Samuel, Jacobs & Sills. A few years later the firm changed its name to Jacobs, Sills and Coblentz. Today, the firm is known as Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass and consists of 72 lawyers.

Mr. Coblentz's law practice started in real estate but, like his firm as a whole, expanded well beyond that field. While he and his partners were instrumental in such iconic San Francisco developments as Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission Bay, Levi Plaza and AT&T Park, Mr. Coblentz was also the longtime counsel to rock-and-roll promoter Bill Graham and later represented renowned 1960s recording artists the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.

Issues of civil rights and racial justice were a passion for Mr. Coblentz. He defended the free speech rights Communist activist Angela Davis in the 1960s, and voiced the University of California's opposition to the South African Apartheid regime. He was a longtime colleague and key supporter of Cecil F. Poole, the first African-American to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, as a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of California and as a judge on United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Later, Mr. Coblentz persuaded Allen Broussard, one of the first African Americans on the California Supreme Court, to join the Coblentz law firm. He was an instrumental supporter of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

In 2008, Mr. Coblentz's partners honored this long record of service by endowing the Coblentz Fellowship for Civil Rights at the University of California Berkeley Law School. The endowment awards fellowships to students dedicated to the pursuit of civil rights and racial justice. Mr. Coblentz also received the 2010 Distinguished Service Award from the Institute for Governmental Studies at the University of California.

Mr. Coblentz served on the Boards of the Koret Foundation, and the Public Policy Institute of California. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002.

Despite Mr. Coblentz's accumulation of accomplishments and honors, he was universally admired for his genuine, unpretentious style. Whether he was addressing a senator or law firm staffer, Mr. Coblentz was known to employ the same upbeat, even mischievous, candor that made him so successful in his many endeavors.

Mr. Coblentz is survived by his wife Jean; children Wendy and Andy Coblentz; son-in-law Jim Lowy and daughter-in-law Shari Libicki; four grandchildren, Nikki and Ben Lowy and Jake and Gena Coblentz; and sister Lolita Erlanger.

A public memorial service will be held at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco on October 18, 2010 at 4 pm.

The family has requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to:
The William K. Coblentz Civil Rights Endowment Fund
Boalt Hall Alumni Center
2850 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 500
Berkeley, CA 94705-7220
Check should be made to "William K. Coblentz Civil Rights Endowment Fund" http://www.law.berkeley.edu/9357.htm
or

UCSF Foundation
PO Box 45339
San Francisco, CA 94145-0339
https://makeagift.ucsf.edu