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Lincoln Constance My introduction to Lincoln Constance occurred in 1960 when, as a new assistant professor, I occupied an office across the hall from him in the old Life Sciences Building. Each Saturday morning he would hold a seminar for his students and he kindly asked me to participate. I soon recognized not only his world stature in systematic botany, but also the respect his students held for him. Lincoln had obtained his Ph.D. at Berkeley (1934), working under Professor Willis Linn Jepson, and then spent three years at Washington State University before returning to Cal, where he remained for the rest of his career. Lincoln was the last of the founding trustees of the Jepson Herbarium, established in 1950 for the collection and study of California flora as a bequest by Professor Jepson. Lincoln helped to edit the new edition of Jepson’s 1925 Manual of the Flowering Plants of California, which was published in 1993 as The Jepson Manual, Higher Plants of California. In addition to being a world-class researcher, Lincoln was a born administrator. During his six decades at Cal he served as chair of the botany department (1954–55), dean of Letters and Science (1955–62), director of the University Herbarium (1963–75), president of the California Academy of Sciences, and, during the turbulent era from 1962 to 1965, as vice chancellor of academic affairs. He also served as acting chancellor at times, including a short period before Roger Heyns was appointed chancellor in 1965. Whereas some campus administrators of that period remained permanently wounded by their industrial-strength administrative experience, Lincoln moved on to resume his distinguished and productive roles as a researcher and teacher up to the time of his passing. What hurt Lincoln most about the unrest of the ’60s was what he perceived as a loss of respect for the campus by a new generation. When I waited for him at the Faculty Club, I would first see a tall figure proceeding up the glade, bending down to pick up each piece of trash for proper disposal. I often thought this activity symbolized his private rejection of the new values with which he disagreed. Given Lincoln’s impressive administrative career, in the spring of 1972 I went to his office and asked him whether I had the right stuff to accept an offer from Chancellor Bowker to become dean of the College of Letters and Science. He answered, among other things, “If you do the people part right, it won’t matter too much what else you do wrong. If you do the people part wrong, it won’t matter what else you do right.” He went on to encourage me, and this was the first of numerous times I sought his advice. Lincoln’s humor is illustrated by the name he gave to the barbecued feral pig dish that we served to the Jepson Herbarium staff at our vineyard in northern Sonoma County. Since introduced pigs are very destructive to native plants, Lincoln called the dish “Botanist’s Revenge.” Lincoln was also a caring and kind individual. This was never more apparent than during his wife’s declining years. His love and attention to Sally during this difficult time remains an inspiration to all of us. I will continue to miss his sound advice and total devotion to the Berkeley campus. —Remembered by Roderic Park,
Vice Chancellor Emeritus Susannah McCorkle
With an astounding repertoire of more than three thousand songs, McCorkle’s typical show might include standards from Cole Porter and the Gershwins, as well as Roy Roger’s western theme, “Don’t Fence Me In,” and contemporary songwriters like Paul Simon. “I like to sing whatever I think is a good song, within the context of jazz,” she explained in a 1994 interview with California Monthly. A writer herself, she approached songs as literature, researching their origins, plumbing them for meaning, unearthing new verses, and relaying her discoveries to her audiences. For the last 11 years, McCorkle had performed a cabaret show at the Algonquin Hotel in New York. In 1999 Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote of her performance: “It is singing that confidently reconciles a refined literary sensibility with the raw impulse to swing.” McCorkle came to her calling relatively late in life. After earning her degree in Italian literature at Cal, where she was on the staff of the Pelican, she moved to Europe and began a career as a writer and translator. Upon hearing a Billie Holiday recording of “I’ve Got a Right to Sing the Blues,” she decided to become a jazz singer. Her broad linguistic talents—she spoke five languages fluently—enabled her to translate Brazilian pop songs and to perform fluently in French and Portuguese. She was an accomplished writer as well; her story “Ramona By the Sea” was selected for The O. Henry Book of Prize Short Stories in 1973. She also published fiction in Mademoiselle and Cosmopolitan, was a contributor to the New York Times Magazine, and wrote extended appreciations of Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, and Irving Berlin for American Heritage. She is survived by her mother Margery and sisters Margery and Kate. Back to Top |
 Photo by Noah Berger
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