Retired judge was the father of Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom
Retired Appeals Court Judge William Newsom, a relic of San Francisco’s Catholic-school old guard and the father of Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, died Wednesday morning in his home in Pacific Heights. He was 84.
His death was confirmed by Nathan Click, spokesperson for Gavin Newsom. The cause of death was not given, but the elder Newsom had suffered from chronic illness for several years.
In his honor, flags at the state Capitol were ordered to be flown at half staff by Newsom’s old friend, Gov. Jerry Brown. Newsom had been an environmental lawyer in the 1970s when Brown, serving his first stint as governor, appointed him to the judiciary.
“Anne and I extend our deepest condolences to the entire Newsom family,” the governor said in a statement, referring to his wife, Anne Gust Brown. “Bill was a longtime friend, a champion of the environment and someone whom I was proud to appoint to the superior court and court of appeal.”
William Alfred Newsom III was born Feb. 15,
1934, in San Francisco and raised in the Marina District. His grandfather had opened the first neighborhood branch of the Bank of America, in the Mission District in 1929, and his father was a building contractor.
Newsom was raised in the Jesuit tradition and attended St. Ignatius High School at the old campus on Stanyan Street, where his classmate was Gordon Getty, the businessman, investor and son of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, with Brown a few years behind. Newsom’s father had managed the first two political campaigns of Brown’s father, Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, who was California governor from 1959-67 and previously state attorney general. And Getty, whose parents were divorced, moved into the Newsom household. Both those connections proved helpful to Newsom.
As was tradition with Catholic San Franciscans of a certain social class back then, Newsom crossed the street from his high school to attend the University of San Francisco, along with his pal Getty. After earning his B.A. in French literature in 1955, Newsom attended law school at Stanford University, while also earning a master’s degree in English literature. His first plan was to be an English teacher, but it did not stick.
“I changed my mind and said, ‘I'm getting too old. I've got to do something to make a few dollars.’ So I went into law,” Newsom said, according to a transcript of the California Appellate Court Legacy Project.
He took a job at the California Supreme Court and started polishing his quips. When later asked about his work there, he suggested that some of the justices did not mind a drink here and there.
“Sometimes I’d be asked to work on a case and other times to pick up a case,” he told The Chronicle in 1982.
In 1967, after spending a few years in Rome working for a subsidiary of Getty Oil, Bill Newsom announced his return to San Francisco by running for the Board of Supervisors. When that failed, he moved to Squaw Valley and opened a solo law practice in Tahoe City. He was early on in his dedication to protection of the environment in general, and mountain lions specifically.
This caught the attention of Jerry Brown, who became governor the first time around in 1975. Newsom never minded making light of the fact that his friend at one time had pursued the priesthood.
“He was a little younger; but he went into the Jesuit order,” Newsom once said. “I became convinced that I didn’t want to be a Jesuit partly as a result of knowing Jerry.”
Brown got back at Newsom upon appointing him to the Placer County Superior Court, by describing him as “my token Irish Catholic.”
Three years later, in 1978, Brown elevated Newsom to the Court of Appeal, the state’s second-highest court. Newsom was only 44, and right away he made headlines by advocating for the decriminalization of narcotics users.
“Our laws are a travesty, and there isn’t any hope of them working,” Newsom said, perhaps seeing into the future. “You will never stop people from importing and selling heroin.”
By 1982, Newsom, called Billy in the Irish bars, was considering a run for the mayorship of San Francisco.
“Politics. It’s the Irish malady,” he told The Chronicle’s Jerry Carroll in an interview conducted over lunch at the Washington Square Bar & Grill.
When that failed, he turned to his old friend Getty and became administrator to the Getty Trust.
Newsom’s marriage to Tessa Menzies, in 1966, ended in divorce after six years. When asked years later about his romantic life, Newsom said, “It’s kind of an odd thing to say, but I’m still going rather steadily with my ex-wife. It was a very amiable divorce. Neither of us remarried and, in my case, it’s not likely.”
Newsom lived out his years in a house at Fillmore Street and Pacific Avenue. For half a century or more, he was a regular at Sam’s Grill in the Financial District, meeting for lunch or dinner with Gordon Getty and local businessman George Miller.
“One thing I loved about Judge Newsom is that he was a Renaissance man,” said John Briscoe, owner of Sam’s. “He had a command of literature and history, as well as the law. He was also a masterful political player. I admired him greatly.”
Newsom served on the Board of Regents for Santa Clara University, which his son attended. He also served on the boards of the Environmental Defense Fund and the Mountain Lion Foundation, among others.
Newsom was predeceased by his ex-wife, Tessa. Survivors include his son, Gavin Newsom, and daughter, Hilary Newsom Callan, both of Kentfield.
Services are pending.
Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Instagram: @sfchronicle_art