Header Graphic
Mr. Dorman Commons, RIP

 

D. L. Commons, Ex-State Education Official, Dies

September 26, 1987|SANTIAGO O'DONNELL | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

 

 

Dorman L. Commons, the former president of the State Board of Education who defied what he saw as Gov. Ronald Reagan's excessive cutbacks in education, died Wednesday at the age of 69.

 

Commons, a Democrat who died of liver cancer at his Marin County home, had been appointed to the 10-member board by Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown in 1961. During his nine-year tenure he oversaw the desegregation of classrooms, the unification of school districts and the upgrading of curriculums with emphasis on the humanities and arts.

 

On Feb. 6, 1968, in an era when the state was sharply reducing its support of public schools, he attacked Reagan and then-state Schools Supt. Max Rafferty as "self-seeking politicians.”

 

"This is a wealthy state, and we . . . can afford to educate every youngster in this state," he said. Two days later he lost his presidency. Four new appointees had given Reagan control of the board.

 

Two years later, when their terms expired, he and Miguel Montes left the board. Both were considered the last liberals on the board--the last advocates of sex education and the teaching of evolution.

 

Business Positions

 

Both before and after his state service, Commons was a successful business executive. While serving on the school board he was financial vice president for Occidental Petroleum Co. In 1973, he left Armand Hammer's firm to become president and chief executive officer of Natomas Co., a San Francisco-based energy firm.

 

He left in 1983 after Natomas' hostile takeover by Diamond Shamrock, a chemical conglomerate. The next year he published a book, "Tender Offer: The Sneak Attack in Corporate Takeovers.”

 

In 1984, Commons was appointed chairman of the new California Commission on the Teaching Profession, a position he held at the time of his death. Under Commons' direction, the state group, made up of appointees of state Schools Supt. Bill Honig and the Legislature's two education committees, commissioned studies calling for, among other things, better salaries and working conditions for teachers.

 

Commons is survived by his wife, Gerry; three sons; a daughter, and 11 grandchildren.

 

Mrs. Commons asked that contributions be made in her husband's name to the Hospice Society, World College West, or the newly created Dorman Commons Endowment Fund for Graduate Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara.