Joseph E. Bodovitz

1930 - 2024

Joseph E. Bodovitz
October 29, 1930 - March 9, 2024
Joseph Bodovitz died March 9, 2024, at age 93, after a high-profile career in environmental protection and public service. "Joe's contributions to California's conservation policies cannot be overstated," reads a remembrance from the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, where he served as executive director. He went on to the same role at the California Coastal Commission and the state Public Utilities Commission.
Joe was born in Oklahoma City in 1930, and earned his bachelor's degree at Northwestern University. After graduation, he served as a navigator on an aircraft carrier, the USS Boxer, during the Korean War. His Navy service brought him in and out of the Bay Area and that's when he fell in love with this region. He earned a master's degree in journalism at Columbia University in 1956, and took a job as a reporter at the San Francisco Examiner – his ticket back to California.
Joe married Shirley Leon in 1957, and they settled in Mill Valley to raise their three children. They were happily married for almost 40 years before her death in 1997. Joe served on the Mill Valley school board for nine years and was instrumental in planning and opening the Mill Valley Middle School. He later served on the board of the Marin Theater Company.
Joe's return to the Bay Area coincided with a blossoming effort to protect San Francisco Bay from too much landfill and development along its shore. He left the Examiner and spent two years at San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR), then was tapped for a succession of leadership roles in state government. At age 33, he was named study director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation Study Commission, created in 1964 to consider the effects of further landfill in the bay and make recommendations to the state legislature.
The result was the creation of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), with 35-year-old Joe as its first executive director.
Under Joe's leadership, BCDC proposed and then implemented rules about how much of San Francisco Bay's shoreline could be filled in and what uses were allowed on the edge of the bay. His top priority was always public access. The San Francisco Chronicle said Joe "is credited by many with building the Bay Conservation and Development Commission into a nationally admired model for regional planning."
In 1972, voters approved Proposition 20, which applied the BCDC model to protect California's 1,100-mile coastline from over-development, and Joe was named executive director of the new California Coastal Commission. He traveled to public hearings up and down the state, met with landowners and developers, and always championed public access to the state's spectacular beaches.
A remembrance from BCDC says, "Nobody in the entire State of California was more influential in developing California's coastal zone management policies than Joe Bodovitz."
His former colleagues remember Joe's good humor, keen intellect and ability to synthesize information quickly and express his thoughts clearly and concisely. One frequent collaborator said, "He made us all better writers, better public servants and better people."
In 1979, Joe was named executive director of the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC), leading California's most powerful regulatory agency and a staff of 850. Under Joe's watch, the PUC regulated utilities and transportation companies at a time of industry deregulation, the rise and fall of oil prices and the breakup of the massive Bell telephone system.
After seven years, Joe made another move, this time to become president of the California Environmental Trust, which focused on growth management and wildlife preservation. During that time, he also served as chief staff officer of the BayVision 2020 Commission, charged with seeking regional solutions to a growing crisis in transportation, housing, land use and pollution.
After Joe retired from his environmental and land use work, he began teaching at the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning in San Francisco. With his easy and engaging style and extensive first-hand knowledge, his courses on climate change, state politics and the environment were hugely popular.
Joe loved spending time with his three children, seven grandchildren and many close friends. He enjoyed sitting by the bay at the Marina Green and watching ships head out to sea from Lands End. He instilled in his children and grandchildren a sense of community service, a love of the outdoors and a commitment to family.
A much-admired public leader throughout his long career, Joe was an unfailingly kind, generous and good-natured person, with a pun at the ready and a twinkle in his eye. He will be missed by all who knew him.
He is survived by his children and their spouses, Katherine Goldgeier (Jim), Sandra Feder (Dan), Steven Bodovitz (Aubrey Gilbert); and his grandchildren, Jeffrey, Brian, Rachel, Abby, Ellie, Sadie, and Lucy.
Donations in his memory may be made to Save the Bay, The Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning or an organization of your choice.