Computer Technologies Program The Bridge to a Career
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David Lamont Landes
(1941-2008)
Our beloved David Landes, CTP’s former Admissions Coordinator passed away on October 13, 2008. Up out of the Mississippi Delta in and around Bluesman BB King territory, David Lamont Landes was born in 1941. His parents worked as organizers on the Delta Cooperative Farm in Clarksdale, (Coahoma County) Mississippi and with the Southern Tenant Farmer’s Union in Abbeville, South Carolina. In 1946, David’s family moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio.
In 1961 he went to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. The next year he survived a spinal cord injury and lived 46 more years as a spirited quadriplegic and disability rights activist. After graduating from Antioch in 1965, David attended Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he received his Ph.D in Economics.
He joined the faculty of San Jose State, in 1969 as part of a group of economists devoted to teaching economics relevant to the less affluent majority of the world.
His life reflected the ways in which people with disabilities broke barriers and paved new avenues for social justice. He traveled extensively with the Disabled International Support Effort (DISE) to Nicaragua, El Salvador and Cuba, conducting workshops and delivering medical supplies.
For seven years, David served as Admission’s Coordinator at the Computer Technologies Program. The students remember his calm presence, gentlemanly demeanor and his wit. He counseled many students at CTP helping them make important decisions about their career paths. He was known as Doctor D by the staff who also adored him.
From 1996 to his death, David served as an Instructor at City College of San Francisco Department of Social Science. His love of baseball was as unyielding as the work ethic he brought to teaching thousands of students micro and macro economics. Six years ago, he predicted the burst of the housing bubble and railed against the economic policies now strangling the country, as well as other economies around the world.
We all feel his loss and know David would want us to celebrate the life we shared with him rather than mourn his passing.
