Ellen Harris

A celebration of the life of Ellen Stern Harris, the activist who helped establish California's Coastal Conservation Act, will be held Sunday at 11 a.m. in the formal garden of Greystone Mansion, 905 Loma Vista Drive, Beverly Hills. Harris died Monday of cancer at her Beverly Hills home. She was 76.

When Ellen Stern Harris died of cancer five years ago at age 76, the pugnacious conservationist left a vast and chaotic collection of letters, research files, photos and publications. Last Wednesday,, a UCLA van pulled up to a chilly storage warehouse in West Los Angeles to pick up 28 cartons of materials, carefully organized by an archivist hired through Craigslist. Over the coming months, UCLA plans to digitize the contents to make them available online to scholars and others interested in California's political and environmental history.

All these decades later, Ellen Stern Harris can pinpoint the tiny spark that helped ignite California's coastal revolution. It was the early 1960s, and the Harris clan was driving up the Malibu coast, jammed even then with beachfront houses. Unable to see a wisp of sea, her young son inquired: "Where's the water?" His childhood indignation haunted her. As she watched the coast continue to vanish, Harris began a push for an agency to safeguard the shore.

A celebration of the life of Ellen Stern Harris, the activist who helped establish California's Coastal Conservation Act, will be held Sunday at 11 a.m. in the formal garden of Greystone Mansion, 905 Loma Vista Drive, Beverly Hills. Harris died Monday of cancer at her Beverly Hills home. She was 76.

Ellen Stern Harris, the aggressive conservationist considered to be the mother of the California Coastal Conservation Act of 1972, who was an original member of the commission it established, died Monday. She was 76. Harris died of cancer at her Beverly Hills home, her family said. "The California coast would not look the way it does without her efforts," Susan Jordan, executive director of the California Coastal Protection Network, told The Times last month.

Decades before voter initiatives joined death and taxes as the only certainties in California, Ellen Stern Harris invited a group of environmental activists concerned about rapid growth along the state's coastline to sit around her dining table and fashion the framework for Proposition 20.

When Ellen Stern Harris died of cancer five years ago at age 76, the pugnacious conservationist left a vast and chaotic collection of letters, research files, photos and publications. Last Wednesday,, a UCLA van pulled up to a chilly storage warehouse in West Los Angeles to pick up 28 cartons of materials, carefully organized by an archivist hired through Craigslist. Over the coming months, UCLA plans to digitize the contents to make them available online to scholars and others interested in California's political and environmental history.

With both the Bushes recently afflicted, can Graves' disease now be attributed to acute broccoli deficiency? ELLEN STERN HARRIS, Beverly Hills

What's the difference between a property tax increase and mandatory homeowners' earthquake insurance (front page, Sept. 22)? Property taxes are deductible from income taxes and insurance premiums aren't. ELLEN STERN HARRIS Beverly Hills

Re "A Wave of Desalination Proposals," March 14: Tourism has long been a major job-producing industry in California. And our beaches are one of tourism's top attractions. If we obliterate ever more of our once-scenic coast with desalination facilities, we will have lost this state's golden shore. We cannot continue to accommodate exponential demand for growth, supply infinite additional water supplies -- in the coastal zone's finite space -- and expect California to maintain a desirable quality of life.

Ellen Stern Harris, the aggressive conservationist considered to be the mother of the California Coastal Conservation Act of 1972, who was an original member of the commission it established, died Monday. She was 76. Harris died of cancer at her Beverly Hills home, her family said. "The California coast would not look the way it does without her efforts," Susan Jordan, executive director of the California Coastal Protection Network, told The Times last month.

Decades before voter initiatives joined death and taxes as the only certainties in California, Ellen Stern Harris invited a group of environmental activists concerned about rapid growth along the state's coastline to sit around her dining table and fashion the framework for Proposition 20.

All these decades later, Ellen Stern Harris can pinpoint the tiny spark that helped ignite California's coastal revolution. It was the early 1960s, and the Harris clan was driving up the Malibu coast, jammed even then with beachfront houses. Unable to see a wisp of sea, her young son inquired: "Where's the water?" His childhood indignation haunted her. As she watched the coast continue to vanish, Harris began a push for an agency to safeguard the shore.

Re "Pruning the Thickets of Cellular Antennas," April 17: Aesthetics may be the least of our concerns, with regard to the proliferation and concentration of cellular phone towers in our urban midst. Although the FCC has declared radio frequency emissions from these antenna to be safe, many are skeptical about the evidence upon which that opinion is based. This skepticism includes apprehension regarding possible adverse health effects. In turn, this may also adversely affect property values of homes located in close proximity to such installations.

The City Council appointed 10 people to serve on two new advisory panels: the Recreation and Parks Commission and the Public Works Commission. The commissioners will assist in planning issues for the city's parks and public projects. Named to the parks commission were Ellen Stern Harris, John Melnick, Stephen Kravit, Rudy Cole and Lona Stone. The new public works panel members are Mark Egerman, Betty Harris, Ron Cooper, Robert Silberman and Gloria Seiff.