|
||
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Almanac by Marion Softky Kent Gentry Dedrick, one of the key players in saving San Francisco Bay from being paved, polluted, and developed, died July 17 in
Sacramento of complications following heart bypass surgery. He was 80. From the mid-1960s to 1975, Mr. Dedrick, a theoretical physicist working at SRI, and his then-wife Claire, were Peninsula leaders in the environmental
movement that swept the country and changed its future. "We were the center of the world," said former Congressman Pete McCloskey, who went to Congress in 1967 -- with the help of the Dedricks and other
conservationists -- and helped pass the major environmental laws that still protect water, air, oceans and endangered species. "Kent was always my expert," he said. Mr. Dedrick's first love was San Francisco Bay. A
descendant of Norwegian whaling captains, he needed water under his keel, and kept a boat. From 1966 on, he became known as "Mr. San Francisco Bay" for tireless efforts to expose the polluters, block the fillers, and
fight for new laws. Most important, Mr. Dedrick, a research scientist to his core, laid the scientific foundation for key legal rulings that the Bay belonged to the public, not Leslie Salt, or Ideal Cement, or others that
claimed it as private property. He sailed the Bay and its inlets, studied old maps dating back to 1838, and testified in lawsuits. Mrs. Dedrick, now living in Sacramento, recalled how he mucked around salt ponds, finding lines
of pollen from when they were part of the historic Bay, and found once-natural cord grass petrified in salt. "He found evidence that established that hundreds of thousands of acres had been subject to tidal action, and so were
the property of the people of California," she said. When the Dedricks lived near the Alameda de las Pulgas in West Menlo Park, their first big fight -- saving the Alameda from being widened to more than 100 feet --
demonstrated the Dedricks' flair. One morning after a community brainstorming session, the street sprouted a forest of Burma-Shave-type signs with messages such as: "The Alameda will be as pretty/ As Mission Street in Daly
City." Mr. Dedrick brought zest, wit, and a talent for drawing cartoons to all the conservation fights of the day. He was president of the Committee for Green Foothills from 1972 to 1973. He once told the Country Almanac:
"It's not fun for fun's sake; it's purpose first. If you can't make it fun, you can't stand it." Kent Dedrick was born in Watsonville and raised in Santa Cruz. After a stint in the Navy during World War II, he
graduated from San Jose State College, and earned a master's degree and a doctorate in physics from Stanford. In Menlo Park, Mr. Dedrick was known for far more that his conservation crusades. He played the bass, both classical
and jazz; composed music; and painted -- as well as drawing wickedly clever cartoons about conservation subjects. He could also build anything and fix anything, Mrs. Dedrick recalls. "He was really a Renaissance man."
In 1976, Mr. Dedrick followed Mrs. Dedrick to Sacramento when she became secretary of resources for Gov. Jerry Brown. There he transferred his research to the State Lands Commission, first as a volunteer, then as a senior
researcher. He continued to study historic maps and tidal records of the Bay and Delta for the California agency that guards the "public trust" in California waters. Before and after moving to Sacramento, Mr. Dedrick's
testimony was key in establishing public ownership of land below the high tide line, and in converting the Army Corps of Engineers from builders and fillers to preservers of Bay and wetlands. "He was one of a
kind," recalled Mr. McCloskey, another key player in local and national conservation. "He was a gentle man who cared deeply about all good causes, and believed in public service." In recent years, Mr. Dedrick
worked tirelessly in the cause of trying to absolve Wen Ho Lee, a Chinese-American scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, of what eventually turned out to be false charges of turning over nuclear secrets to the Chinese
government. At the time of his death, Mr. Dedrick was assembling materials for a book he planned to write on the history of the movement to save San Francisco Bay. Mr. Dedrick is survived by one daughter, Susan Dedrick of
Oregon; two nephews; and several cousins. No services are planned. Donations are invited to a cause he believed in. Page last updated July 29, 2004 . |
|
|
|
||||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|||
