John Bunzel

1924 - 2018

John "Jack" Bunzel

John "Jack" Bunzel, senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, former president of San Jose State University from 1970 to 1978, and former commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, died July 19, 2018 at his home in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Bunzel was 94.
Bunzel was born in 1924 in New York City, where he attended Kent School from 1937 to 1942. He enlisted in the U.S. Army during in 1942, and after World War II earn a bachelor's degree in political science from Princeton University. He subsequently earned a master's degree in sociology from Columbia University and a PhD in political science from the University of California-Berkeley.
The author or editor of eight academic books, Bunzel taught at San Francisco State College (1953-1956, 1965-1970), Michigan State University (1956-57), and Stanford University (1957-1963). He was a visiting scholar at Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences when he became president of San Jose State University in 1970.
In 1978 Bunzel was named Senior Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution on the Stanford Campus, and in 1983 he was appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, on which he served one term. Bunzel also wrote extensively on political and social matters in such publications as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, The Public Interest and the San Francisco Chronicle. From 1976 to 1982 he wrote a weekly column for the San Jose Mercury News, and in 1964 he also hosted a weekly television program on the San Francisco CBS affiliate KPIX-TV titled "The American Voter."
In 1993 Bunzel turned to comedy to lampoon politics, relationships between men and women, and aging and health problems. He regularly entertained thousands of Stanford alumni with his stand-up comedy routine "From Here to Hilarity," and he performed his final "gig" in Charleston, SC in 2016 at the age of 92.
Bunzel is survived by his daughter, Cameron Marzelli, and son-in-law David; a son, Reed Bunzel, and daughter-in-law Diana; a grandson, Michael; a step-granddaughter Jennifer; and step-daughter Ann Kline and her husband Richard.
At Bunzel's request, there will be no memorial service. Donations in his memory can be made to one's favorite charity.
A memorial message may be sent to the family by visiting our website at www.jhenrystuhr.com.