John Kramer, local "progressive icon" dies :(

John was indeed a progressive icon. :rip:

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SSU professor, progressive icon John Kramer dies at 75
https://www.sonomawest.com/sonoma_west_times_and_news/news/ssu-professor-progressive-icon-john-kramer-dies-at/article_8240e27a-a4b0-11e3-854e-0019bb2963f4.html

Posted: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 1:52 pm
by David Abbott Sonoma West Editor [email protected]

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Former Sonoma State University political science professor and longtime West County progressive activist John Kramer died last week after an eight-month battle with brain cancer. He was 75 years old.
“A friend once said, ‘If there was ever a nuclear holocaust, I’d want to be with John. Not only can he fix things, he can also do quantum physics,’” his wife Nancy Dobbs said. “Of all the amazing things he did and considering the fullness of his life, he didn’t talk that much about himself. He talked about his concerns about the future and policy matters and his intense commitment to the country was pretty profound.”

A “Renaissance man” in his signature floppy hat, Kramer was a man of many talents.

He grew grapes and made wine; sang tenor with the Bach Choir; loved baseball and was an excellent cook who often hosted dinner parties for friends and family.

John Francis Kramer, Ph.D. was born to Elmer Kramer and Anne Niederheiser Kramer on Nov. 15, 1938 in Cincinnati, Ohio and grew up in Batavia, Ohio with his brother Charlie and sister Mary Ruth. His father was a teacher and an insurance broker and his mother was a music teacher.

After graduating from Batavia High School, Kramer spent his junior year of college in Berlin as part of a cultural exchange program sponsored by the Presbyterian Church. After completing his master’s degree in 1961, he participated in the Crossroads Africa program, a precursor to the Peace Corps.

“The experiences living and working with our Crossroads group and Guinean students changed the direction of my professional life,” he wrote at the time. “I found that I had more interest and passion about politics and social justice than I had felt about physics and than I had felt through two years of graduate school.”

Upon his return to the U.S., Kramer enrolled in a Ph.D. program at MIT where he studied physics and social science data analysis. He started teaching political science at Michigan State in 1967, and then moved to California in 1970, teaching at both UC Berkeley and SSU.

He began teaching full time at SSU in 1972, serving as the chair of the political science department several times over the 40-plus years he taught there.

“To steal a quote from Orwell, ‘All people are unique, but John was more unique than others’ and I mean that in the best possible way,” longtime friend and colleague Andy Merrifield said. “John had an exuberance for politics and a contempt for normal conditions and mores.”

Merrifield worked with Kramer for nearly three decades and traveled all around the country with him, to conferences and even baseball games, he said.

In 1992, Kramer and Merrifield received a National Science Foundation grant and traveled to Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

“Candidates Clinton and Gore were doing a bus tour — we called it the Bubba Bus Tour —and it came through Columbus,” Merrifield said. “Despite all the barriers and secret service people around, John decided we were going to talk to the candidates. We went to where the buses were and John called over to a member of the entourage. The guy probably thought he was insane but came over and started talking to John and actually started to listen. John chewed on his ear for awhile and it turns out the guy was the current or former governor of Ohio.”

The pair never met the candidates, but Merrifield said the story epitomized Kramer’s approach to politics and life.

“He was more than a funny hat,” Merrifield said. “He was an icon of progressivism, but part of that iconic nature was because he could be so outrageous, but was outrageous with a twinkle in his eye. He reasoned that it was a struggle, but a struggle worth fighting, so you’d better enjoy it.”

In the late 1970s, Kramer took a leave from SSU and went to Washington to work in the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy, where he focused on rural telecommunications policy. When he returned to Sonoma County, he founded KRCB with Dobbs, who is still president of the broadcasting company as well as a board member of the Palm Drive Health Care District.

Throughout his life, Kramer maintained his identity as a “New Deal” Democrat in the local political scene becoming a familiar figure in local progressive politics.

He served on the board of Sonoma County Conservation Action for over 20 years, and also served a board president. He was also active in local grassroots politics in Sebastopol serving on the steering committee of Sebastopol Tomorrow, working as a high-profile opponent of the CVS development in Sebastopol.

“He was passionate in his beliefs and not some elitist NIMBY,” longtime friend and fellow SCCA board member Una Glass said. “He was a social justice advocate. ... He was against the neo-liberal agenda that would privatize profits and socialize costs.”

Glass, who is married to Sebastopol Concilmember Michael Kyes, met Kramer and Dobbs as a Sonoma State student at the age of 19. Kramer was so impressed with Glass that he encouraged her hiring at the political science department.

“We served more than 20 years together on the Sonoma County Conservation Action board and I worked with him on Sebastopol Tomorrow,” Glass said. “He was a New Deal Democrat and these days they would call them ‘Commie Pinko’ ideas.

“He had a great understanding of the connection of democracy and grass roots and the notion that there is a common interest and commons and from these commons, citizens have a right and an obligation to make that community vibrant and to create a quality of life that makes them safe,” she said.

Not only did he and his wife design their home near Freestone, but Kramer did much of the hands-on building himself. He traveled extensively, visiting most countries in Europe several times as well as the Philippines, Indonesia, Mexico and Argentina and spoke German, Italian, Spanish and French.

Kramer was preceded in death by his parents and brother Charles Kramer.

He is survived by his wife Nancy Dobbs; children Annie Dobbs Kramer, Andrew Dobbs Kramer and Ian Dobbs Dixon and sister Mary Ruth Kramer Scott.

A memorial service is being planned for later this month.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made in his memory to KRCB.

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