|
|
IN MEMORIAM
Douglas Stillman Hobbs
Professor of Political Science
UC Los Angeles
1933-2003
Douglas Hobbs was one of a kind. He had a disputatious style which was perfectly suited for teaching constitutional and public law. He was a genial man with an endless supply of pertinent anecdotes and a priceless and ironic sense of humor, making him popular with his colleagues as well as his grateful students. As a colleague, he was universally popular and at the same time provocative. Given the quality of his mind and the argumentative nature of his personality, very few unexamined conventional opinions slipped by him unchallenged.
Douglas Stillman Hobbs was born on February 17, 1933, in Rochester, New York, the son of Stillman Moulton Hobbs and Eileen Collins Hobbs. He grew up in Rochester and in Great Neck, Long Island. He attended Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude in 1955 with an A.B. in Government. After serving as a naval officer, he returned to Harvard for graduate study, his research examining judicially-mandated reapportionment in light of three landmark Supreme Court decisions of the early 1960s: Baker v. Carr, Gray v. Sanders, and Reynolds v. Sims. Doug concluded that the Court had proceeded too far, too soon, on a record that was too sparse in imposing its “one-man, one-vote” mandate.
Arriving at UCLA in 1964, Doug immediately began teaching constitutional and public law courses in the Department of Political Science. The Socratic Method is common in law schools, but is not so common in academic departments. It suited him perfectly and helps explain why he was so popular with students and why they were so stimulated by his classes. He would disapprove of this sentimentality, but the truth is his students loved him. And a lucky group they were, being intellectually stimulated even when they didn’t recognize it as such.
In 1969 he received the Academic Senate’s Distinguished Teaching Award. One student, in assessing Doug’s commitment to teaching, later noted:
“…he had a brilliant, tough mind. His lectures were stellar, and he made no effort to dilute them. Years after his class, I recall being able to answer an obscure law school examination question about criminal immunity, because Professor Hobbs had made us learn immunity’s painstaking details in his class….While I was first impressed with his tough mind, I now believe that his best feature was his big heart. What he did for me, and so many others, namely his above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty teaching inside and outside the classroom, was immeasurable. He taught us, helped us, inspired us, and – most of all – set an example for us to grow up as the people we are today.”
Doug’s contributions to university and public service were no less stellar. He had a continuing series of appointments on Senate committees, beginning soon after his arrival on campus. At one point in the early 1970s he simultaneously served as chair of the University-wide Committee on Rules and Jurisdiction and as both parliamentarian and chair of Rules and Jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Division.
In commenting on his university service, colleagues called attention to “the maturity of his judgment, to the excellence of his analyses of the problems of the functioning of the university, and to the breadth of his mind, which allows him to see the long range implications as well as the legalistic details in formulating solutions to these problems.” In the final analysis, the University had a special meaning for Doug, and he could perform seeming miracles in opening doors and assembling senior administrators when the University’s integrity was threatened.
His outside public service was no less notable. Because of his expertise on the reapportionment issue, he was immediately drafted as a consultant to the California State Assembly’s Committee on Elections and Reapportionment. As that body went through the throes of reapportionment, Doug co-authored two reports for the Assembly: Reapportionment in California: Consultants’ Report to the Assembly (with William P. Gerberding) and Courts and Legislatures: a Survey of Legislative Reapportionment (with Edward M. Goldberg).
He began a new chapter in his University service in 1976 when he was appointed as UCLA’s Faculty Athletic Representative. In this role, he represented UCLA in the governance council of the Pacific-10 (pac-10) Conference and in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), working closely with Chancellor Charles E. Young and three different Bruin athletic directors during an eighteen-year period of service.
In his first year as Faculty Athletic Representative, Doug was a significant voice in the decision-making process that ultimately resulted in the expansion of the pac-8 Conference to the pac-10 Conference. As Faculty Athletic Representative, he oversaw the certification of eligibility for UCLA student-athletes and helped shape the development of numerous conference policies and legislative proposals for submittal to the NCAA.
Doug served as President of the pac-10 Council (of Faculty Athletic Representatives) twice (1978-79 and 1987-88), and as NCAA Division I Vice President (1991). Doug chaired the NCAA Division I steering committee which governed Division I intercollegiate athletics. In that role, he was also an ex-officio member of the NCAA Executive Committee during 1991, while also concluding a four-year term (1987-1991) on the NCAA Council. He also served as a member of the NCAA Division I steering committee in 1978-1979 and from 1988 to 1994.
He also chaired the NCAA Academic Requirements Committee and the NCAA Council subcommittees on Initial Eligibility waivers, and waivers for international competition. He was a member of the NCAA Council subcommittee on eligibility appeals and the NCAA Special Committee on Certification.
In 1964, Doug married Jane Field of Nutley, New Jersey. Jane passed away in 1991, and Doug then married Suzanne Holland (née Herz), a writer for the screen and television, who died in 2007.
Doug retired in 1994. He moved to Kennebunk, Maine, where he died on August 19, 2003, only a few miles from the Hobbs family Colonial-era homesteads in North Hampton, New Hampshire. His legacy will always engender a smile of gratitude and pleasure for those privileged to have known him.
William P. Gerberding
Charles E. Young
David C. Rapoport
Michael F. Lofchie
John S. Caragozian
John R. Sandbrook
Elwin V. Svenson
Peter T. Dalis
Donald G. Browne