Dr. Jerome Lackner, 82, doctor, lawyer and social activist known for his connections to Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez
Hoodoo
Onetime physician for MLK Jr. spent last months in Santa Cruz
By RHIANNON CORBY
07/12/2010 08:58:52 PM PDT
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_15499028
http://snipurl.com/zayhc [www_santacruzsentinel_com]
Dr. Jerome Lackner was perhaps best known as personal physician to
Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights march from Selma, Ala.,
to Birmingham in 1965, and for giving health advice to
farmworker-advocate Cesar Chavez during his hunger strikes.
Jerome Lackner, a doctor, lawyer, and passionate social activist known
for his connections to Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez, died
Friday in Davis of congestive heart failure. He was 82.
Lackner spent the last several months of his life in the Santa Cruz
area, where four of his children live. He spent his life fighting to
provide care and support to those who most needed it, a mission which
resulted in his founding the United Farm Workers Union clinic in
Salinas, and in his involvement with numerous struggles for farmworker
rights, friends and colleagues said.
"Doc loved a good fight," said Don Gomez, a close friend for 36 years.
"He fought for prisoners, alcoholics, addicts, farmworkers - whomever
nobody else liked, Doc took special care of."
He was perhaps best known as personal physician to Martin Luther King
Jr. during the civil rights march from Selma, Ala., to Birmingham in
1965, and for giving health advice to farmworker-advocate Cesar Chavez
during his hunger strikes.
During his years at University of Santa Clara and UC Berkeley, Lackner
studied psychology, sociology, anthropology and social institutions. His
education put him on a path of activism and social justice, said friends.
Lackner served as head of the California Department of Health Services
under former Gov. Jerry Brown. Lackner used his vast knowledge on
addiction and alcoholism to found the William D. Silkworth Fund for the
advanced study and treatment of addictive disorders. "Doc was not about
blame," Gomez said. "Doc was about, 'Where do we go from here?'"
The last months of his life were frustrating for Lackner, Gomez said.
The independence and tirelessness that had propelled him his entire
lifetime faltered along with his health, and he was forced to use a
walker or a wheelchair to get around.
That dimmed neither his spirits nor his intellect, however, and
according to daughter Johanna Lackner-Marx, he would jokingly insist he
was "fine from the neck up."
Lackner spent his last hours with his wife of 15 years, Rebecca Lackner,
and several hospice nurses.
Lackner raised five children with his first wife, Dr. Yetta Lippman, and
instilled in each of them a need to "heal the world," Lackner-Marx said.
A voracious reader, he valued learning above all else.
"When we would go to our bookstore, he would take a shopping cart from
the supermarket next door, and he would fill that cart up with books,"
said Lackner-Marx.
The books would find their way into the family's "library," a room
devoted entirely to learning and curiosity.
Lackner loved spending time with his wife and dogs. Other hobbies
included watching Woody Allen movies, being in nature, boxing, playing
chess and eating good food.
"Doc left such an emotional and intellectual footprint on all those he
touched," Gomez said. "His persona was so profound and so obviously
genuine."
Dr. Jerome Lackner
BORN: April, 17, 1927, in Santa Clara
DIED: July 9, 2010, in Davis
OCCUPATION: Doctor, lawyer, human rights activist
EDUCATION: Medical degree from University of Southern California, law
degree from Santa Clara University
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Fought on behalf of local farmworkers, involved
in support systems for those struggling with addiction
SURVIVORS: Wife Rebecca Lackner; daughters Ruth Hiller of Israel,
Johanna Lackner-Marx of Soquel, Sara Lackner of Soquel and Zelda Lackner
of Aptos; son Joel Lackner of Santa Cruz; ex-wife Yetta Lippman; sister
Barbara Lackner; and 16 grandchildren. SERVICES: 10 a.m. Tuesday at
Davis Cemetery
CONTRIBUTIONS: American Red Cross at American Red Cross, P.O. Box
4002018, Des Moines, IA 50340; or Mogen David Adom (Israeli Red Cross)
at www.afmda.org
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