Frances Lomas Feldman

FELDMAN, Frances Lomas Age 95. Passed away September 30, 2008, at the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena. A pioneer in social work in California and nationally, she was Distinguished Emerita Professor of Social Work at USC. Frances Feldman was born in Philadelphia in 1912 and came to Los Angeles in 1921. Her countless accomplishments during her 73 years as a social worker included the first book on the psychological effects of money problems on families and the first study of the psychosocial effects of cancer in the workplace, a three-volume work and still the standard study. She often collaborated on research with her late husband, Albert G. Feldman, a mental health expert and deputy director of USC's Andrus Gerontology Center. In the late 1960s, she traveled to remote areas of Alaska to study the need for social services among Eskimos. After her husband's death, she traveled widely, often to such places as Inner Mongolia, Ethiopia, Mali, and Papua New Guinea, to see how people there lived. Widely known and beloved for her warmth and hospitality, every New Year's Day for fifty years she gave a "Rose Parade" party for hundreds of people at her home near the Arroyo. She is survived by her daughter, Dona Munker of New York; son-in-law, Hartmut Munker; nephew, Donald Lomas and his wife, Elaine; grandnieces, Jennifer Nicole and Allison Lomas; great-grandniece, Leyla; grandnephew, Michael Lomas. Services will be held Monday, October 6, 2008 at 11 a.m. at Hillside Mortuary (800) 576-1994. Contributions in her memory can be made to the USC School of Social Work's Albert G. and Frances L. Feldman Fund.