[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 68 (Thursday, April 26, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E871]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             JAMES L. WOOD--SOCIOLOGIST, POLITICAL ACTIVIST

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BOB FILNER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 25, 2007

  Mr. FILNER. Madam Speaker, my friend and colleague, James L. Wood, 
died on Wednesday, April 18, following a brief bout with an aggressive 
cancer. Since his retirement from San Diego State University in May 
2005, Jim and his wife Patsy lived in Berkeley. Jim was an 
inspirational teacher and reform activist. These passions animated him 
throughout his life, both in his family relations and in his engagement 
with the larger world.
  Jim was born in Oakland, CA, in 1941. After graduating from the 
Oakland public schools, he enrolled in the University of California, 
Berkeley, where he earned his Bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in sociology. 
As a student at Berkeley, Jim met his future wife Patsy. They studied 
at Berkeley in extraordinary times, when national and world affairs and 
their academic aspirations converged. Jim's first day of graduate 
school, October 1, 1964, marked the beginning of the Free Speech 
movement. Additionally, the Civil Rights movement and the anti-war 
movement's mobilization of students and broad segments of the general 
public against the U.S. involvement in war in Southeast Asia influenced 
Jim to study collective behavior and mass movements.
  Upon completion of his doctoral studies at Berkeley, Jim moved to San 
Diego and joined the Sociology Department at San Diego State University 
(SDSU) in 1975. His scholarship and teaching focused on social 
movements and political sociology. He also taught courses on statistics 
and methodology. Jim assumed the duties of Department Chair, from 1991 
to 2000. During these years at SDSU, Jim authored and co-authored many 
articles and books addressing civil rights, collective behavior and 
student activism, social movements, and sociological traditions.
  When State budget allocations for the California State University 
system (CSU) declined, in the early 1990s, efforts of the SDSU 
leadership to restructure departments on that campus, including 
elimination of the Sociology Department, prompted Jim to focus 
intensively on the politics of higher education. As an activist and 
leader in the SDSU Chapter of the California Faculty Association, Jim 
was part of a faculty-student coalition that prompted the restoration 
of nine academic departments that had been slated for dismantling, and 
the withdrawal of termination notices for the numerous tenured faculty 
who would have been dismissed. For the CFA Chapter, Jim chaired the 
legislative committee. He also actively participated in other 
organizations, including the American Sociological Association. He was 
a member and elected officer of the American Association of University 
Professors. In 1996, he was a founding member and later became 
president of the San Diego-based Faculty Coalition for Public Higher 
Education, which supports funding stabilization for the State's public 
colleges and universities, the protection of tenure in the face of the 
expansion and exploitation of contingent faculty ranks, faculty control 
of technology in the classroom, and the exposure of corporate influence 
in higher education.
  Following retirement, Jim and Patsy resettled in Berkeley. Jim 
continued to be active in sharing information and supporting the 
reforms for the community colleges and universities to which he had 
devoted so much energy over the years.
  For colleagues and friends, the memory of Jim as a committed 
professor and activist will continue as an inspiration.
  Jim is survived by his wife Patsy and daughter Ann, both of Berkeley, 
and son Jeff of Los Angeles.
  A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 28, at 2 p.m. at 
the Unity Church, 2075 Eunice Street, Berkeley, CA.

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