Obituary for Dr Richard Tansey, SJS Art Historian

Richard G. TANSEY
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Funeral Announcement
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Saturday 21 February 1998 San Jose Mercury News, p. 6B
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    Tansey, Richard G. -- At rest in San Jose on February 20, 1998. Richard G. Tansey came to San Jose with his wife, Luraine, in 1947 to teach at San Jose State College.

    While he had schooled at Harvard in the history of art, he early recognized the importance of interdisciplinary studies. With a group of professors in different departments, he established a faculty club with the aim of providing a collegial community. This group set up the Humanities program at San Jose Stage for talented college students, many of whom went on to earn their doctorates. Later Dr. Tansey and the group established the Tutorials program at San Jose State.

    As the college grew into a university, as San Jose exploded in population, and as the sixties brought political turmoil, many problems of a large urban university began to appear. Dr. Tansey organized a chapter of the American Federation of Teachers to provide a voice for the professors to preserve the quality of education at San Jose State College. He helped many people through administrative hurdles whether returnees from Vietnam, students who were in trouble, faculty who had been treated unfairly, or friends who were financially destitute. While some of his causes were not popular, he fought for them with integrity.

    In 1968 Dr. Tansey collaborated with Horst de la Croix in writing the art history book, Gardner's Art Through the Ages. This successful book lasted through five editions and at his death Dr. Tansey was writing yet another edition. By the time he retired in 1980, his perspective of art history reached twelve thousand students through his lectures at San Jose State College. Through his textbook he reached hundreds of thousands of students more. Perhaps the most privileged of those students were the ones who participated in one of the many tours to Europe which he and Marvin Jensen led.

    But Dr. Tansey was perhaps best known for the informal community who gathered around him in weekly discussions of world events and ideas. He embraced a diversity of members. The hallmark of his teaching and friendship was inclusion, not exclusion, excellence, not mediocrity.

    Richard Tansey was born on October 26, 1919 in Newark, New Jersey. He received all of his degrees in Art History from Harvard (B.A., 1942, M.A, and PhD). He is survived by his wife, Luraine, and his four sons, Michael, Mark, Charles, and Joel.

    Friends are invited to attend Graveside Services Sunday February 22, 1998 at 12:30 p.m. at Los Gatos Memorial Park, 2255 Los Gatos/Almaden Road, San Jose.

    Memorial contributions to the Hospice of the Valley, 1150 S. Bascom Ave., Suite 7A, San Jose, CA 95128 preferred.

    Darling-Fischer Garden Chapel, Directors.
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Pinto Lake, Watsonville, CA.
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    Dr. Tansey was the Tau Delta Phi adviser who preceded Dr. Edward Laurie. (Perhaps someone with access to the La Torre yearbooks can ascertain the dates of Dr. Tansey's service to the fraternity.)

    I got to know Dr. Tansey through his office-mate, Dr. Horst de la Croix, who was one of the four professors I had during my two years in the Humanities program. We had similar backgrounds in that he worked for the U.S. Forest Services during the summers while attending UC Berkeley and I while attending San Jose State. One day at Dr. de la Croix's office I met Dr Tansey.

    As is obvious from the above obituary, Dr. Tansey was interested in more than just art history. I recall talking for 15-20 minutes at the NW corner of Washington Square (4th and San Fernando) about a variety of subjects.

    His favorite story was about an experience he had in a bar in New Jersey shortly after he was hired to teach at SJS. When he told the fellow next to him about his new job, another fellow piped up with "You mean that football factory on the west coast?"

    Yes, sport fans, SJS had strong football teams in the late 30s, with the 1939 team going undefeated. And one of the key players on that year's team was Bob Tichenal, a Tau Delt -- and later a SJS football coach.

    The last time I talked with Dr. Tansey was shortly after I discovered that Dr. de la Croix, who lived in Santa Cruz after his retirement, had passed on. And since there was a Tau Delta Phi Alumni Reunion at the BBQ pits next to the Old Women's Gym, I invited him to attend as my guest. While he was using a cane when he walked, he was still very sharp mentally. And another former Tau Delt who was also a former SJS faculty member remarked after Dr Tansey left, "I wonder where Dick has been? I haven't seen him around lately."

    One answer may be that Dr. Tansey was working on the 6th edition of Gardner's Art Through the Ages.