IN MEMORIAM

Kenneth Harlan Simmons

Professor of Architecture, Emeritus

UC Berkeley

1933 - 2010

Kenneth Simmons was born on June 28, 1933, in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and died of cancer on July 6, 2010, in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is survived by his ex-wife Christine Morgan, their son Kenneth II, and daughter Margot; by another daughter, Annette, with Joyce Redman; and by his ex-wife Gloria Burkhalter and their daughter Jalia; and by five grandchildren.

 

He was known for his work in equal rights, urban planning, and community development in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and South Africa.

 

Professor Simmons received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He became a faculty member of Berkeley’s Department of Architecture in 1969, and played a key role in the movement for the University to divest from South Africa. He taught urban planning and helped to develop the community design and development program at the department. He was much loved by his students, advocating for them, inspiring them and giving them practical help in following whatever goals they set for themselves. He helped establish the Black Environmental Student Association at the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. He retired from UC in 1994.

 

While teaching at Berkeley, he worked professionally, specializing in urban and community planning and development. He was a partner with the firms Ishimaru, O’Neill and Simmons, and the Community Design Collaborative. Among some of the noted work for which he was the lead partner are the Dock of the Bay, the Black Repertory Community Center in Berkeley, and Robert Pitts Public Housing in San Francisco.

 

He was also appointed to the board of directors for the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD). His advocacy was key to the establishment of EBMUD’s affirmative action program and its Contract Equity Program that opened the doors to allow hundreds of millions in contracting business with the district to be done by women and minorities. He also served as director of the New Oakland Committee, coordinator for housing and community development for the San Francisco Equal Opportunity Council, and project director of the Urban America Hunts Point Multi-Service Center in the Bronx, New York.

 

After moving to South Africa in 1996, Professor Simmons taught at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg—first at the School of Town and Regional Planning and later at the School of Architecture. He also worked for the Planning Department of the Sandton Municipality and worked with a number of community organizations on urban planning projects. At the University of Witwatersrand, Professor Simmons became a leading advocate for increasing the number of black students at the previously mostly white university.

 

Professor Simmons was a voracious consumer of jazz, books, and art, and was well-known for his support for community artists, poets, musicians, and craft makers. He remained a lifetime member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

 

Sara Ishikawa

Gloria Burkhalter

Ken Simmons II

2011