By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Harold W. Horowitz, 77, died of complications with
Parkinson’s disease on July 28.
A pioneer of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Horowitz was a former
UCLA law professor and vice chancellor who left a mark on the
university that lasts to this day.
“He reviewed individually every case that went through
committee on academic personnel,” said professor Ken Karst, a
friend and colleague. “Hal is famous within that process for
his insistence on fairness.”
Horowitz’s work resulted in changes in faculty relations
that are still in use today.
“He helped to create the kind of academic personnel system
that is known not only in the law school but throughout the
university,” said Norm Abrams, current vice chancellor of
faculty relations at the UCLA School of Law.
“Following in his footsteps was very hard,” Abrams
said. “Sometimes you feel like you’re following in the
footsteps of giants, and that’s how it was with
him.”
Horowitz’s accomplishments were not limited to Westwood.
As the associate general counsel of the U.S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare, Horowitz was an early proponent of civil
rights and principles of equality.
He was one of the principal drafters of the law that became
Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids recipients
of federal grant money from discriminating on the basis of
race.
“This turned out to be the most important factor in the
desegregation of schools in the South,” Karst said.
“Hal was a force in making sure everybody got his or her
due,” he added.
Horowitz was also a key legal advisor in the 1976 California
Supreme Court court case Serrano v. Priest, which called for the
balancing of school spending between rich and poor districts,
according to Karst.
“He gave of himself to everybody and causes he believed
in,” Karst said.
Despite his academic success, friends and family say
Horowitz’s greatest achievements were with his family and
friends.
“He accomplished so much in life but if you asked what he
was proudest of, it was his family,” said his daughter Lisa
Schwartz. “His kids, grandkids and his wife were the center
of his universe.”
His wife Elizabeth recalled that he was the kind of man who
never received a parking ticket in his life.
“He was inspiring in his power of intellect and as a model
of human decency,” she said. “He had a world that was
constructed around his few close friends, his family and his
university and he functioned magnificently within it.”
Horowitz completed his undergraduate studies at UCLA and later
returned as a law professor and administrator in 1964. He retired
in 1991 after 11 years as a vice chancellor.
Horowitz is survived by his wife Elizabeth, his children Lisa
and Adam, his grandchildren Hilary and Aron Schwartz and Alexi
Horowitz, and sister Madelyne Sklar.
All donations should be made to the UCLA school of Law and the
Western Center on Law and Poverty.