Ann E. Pitzer (M.S. '60, HomeEc), a trustee of the Pitzer Family Foundation, died of cancer on October 15 at the age of 77. She lived in La Jolla and Kelseyville, CA.
Ann was the daughter of the late emeritus chemistry professor Kenneth S. Pitzer and his wife, Jean Mosher Pitzer. Professor Pitzer, an alum of the college (Ph.D. '37, Chem with Wendell Latimer) and arenowned physical chemist, was the founder of theoretical chemistry at Berkeley, a dean of the college (1951-60), a president of Rice and Stanford universities and, together with his wife, a generous philanthropist.
Following Professor Pitzer's death in 1997, Ann and her two brothers, Russell M. and John S. Pitzer, formed the Pitzer Family Foundation to continue the philanthropy initiated by their grandfather, Russell K. Pitzer (the founder of Pitzer College), and actively continued by their father and mother.
Ann and her brothers grew up in Kensington, CA. Ann, the oldest of the three, obtained her B.A. in 1958 from UC Davis in home economics, followed by a master's degree from Berkeley. She spent the majority of her career as a software developer, employed at Science Applications International Corporation in San Diego for 23 years until her retirement in 2000. Her brother Russ is an emeritus professor of chemistry at Ohio State University, and John is a retired economist whose employers included the federal government and the International Monetary Fund. Ann's husband, Fred Bromley, died in 2001.
In recent years, one of Ann's priorities has been the family foundation. In 2013 she noted in Catalyst, "Although the foundation has a very broad mandate, higher education and the Berkeley campus tend to be a focus for our work. Berkeley was really home to both of our parents."
The Pitzer Family Foundation has been an outstanding source of support for the College of Chemistry. It endowed not only our Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, but also the Kenneth S. Pitzer Distinguished Professorship in Chemistry, currently held by Martin Head-Gordon. Thanks in no small part to the family's ongoing philanthropy, the college houses what is arguably the finest theoretical chemistry group in the nation.
Ann, who was a member of the UC Davis Foundation Board, received the Aggie Service alumni award in 2013.
Details on the memorial service are not known at this time.
