Former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer Dies at 81

Susan Hammer, San Jose’s mayor from 1991 until 1999, died
Saturday night, family members announced Sunday afternoon. She was 81.

Hammer, who had battled Alzheimer’s disease, was surrounded
by family and friends when she passed at her San Jose home, they said.

Cindy Chavez, a former San Jose City Council member and
current Santa Clara County Supervisor, said Hammer was a role model for the
entire San Jose community.

“Susan demonstrated bold and inclusive leadership
forming the Mayor’s Gang Task Force and building the arts,” Chavez said
Sunday on Twitter. “Her legacy of accomplishment will be heralded.”

Added Richard Nguyen, a member of the Campbell Unified
School District board, “San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer showed me what it
meant to be a good, kind and thoughtful leader. We have lost a remarkable
person, but her legacy and impact will live on.”

A San Jose City Council member from 1983 until 1990, Hammer
– as mayor – was a leader in fundraising for the former San Jose Repertory
Theatre building (now the San Jose State University Hammer Theatre Center) and oversaw
the construction of the San Jose Arena, now known as SAP Center, and affectionately
as the Shark Tank, as the home of hockey’s San Jose Sharks, which opened in
2003.

Shortly after her mayoral stint ended, Hammer was appointed
by then-Gov. Gray Davis in February 1999 to the state Board of Education.

Hammer also was instrumental in the city’s partnership with
San Jose State University to build the Martin Luther King Library downtown.
That library now hosts a collection of documents — administrative files, press
and publicity, awards, photographs, videotapes, correspondence, and other memorabilia
–from Hammer’s two terms as mayor known collectively as the “Susan Hammer
Papers,” highlighting Hammer’s involvement in San Jose community and
economic development.

Source: NBC Bay Area