Eulogy

By Willie Lewis Brown Jr.

California has lost a state treasure, and I have lost a mentor and friend. As mayor of Los Angeles, TOM BRADLEY was a healer of social divisions and a visionary who shepherded the transformation of an unruly town into a great city. The grandson of slaves, the son of Texas sharecroppers, he broke through racial barriers because there was simply no surrender in him. He bore the abuse that was the price of his success with a majestic dignity that even his most vicious detractors could never crack. Although he never courted the press, and was often criticized by it for his stoic public demeanor, he was one of the ablest politicians I have ever known. He understood that the test of political genius lies in the hard work of building constituencies and forging them into sustainable electoral majorities--something he did quietly but with dazzling results. When many of us who were first elected at the same time as he were adopting the bravado of Young Turks while trying frantically to figure out how the process worked, Tom came to public office fully prepared to govern. His accomplishments made him the standard to which all California mayors must aspire. We will miss him, I suspect, in more ways than we can now comprehend.

--WILLIE LEWIS BROWN JR., mayor of San Francisco