Passings

Our hearts sank this week after learning Judith Zitter had lost her long fight against cancer at the all-too-young age of 53.

A devoted wife and loving mother, Judith was also a tireless advocate for others whose problems she viewed as bigger than her own, first as a field representative for former Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole from 1987 to 1995, then later as a social worker with local nonprofit organizations that focused primarily on healthcare and children’s services, and as a community health manager with Kaiser Permanente.

Judith won awards over her years of service to the community, but she was proudest of being feted in May by the Community Health Alliance of Pasadena, her husband and high school sweetheart Neal Wrightson told reporter Alfred Lee of the Pasadena Star-News.

On her new blog, pasadenapio.blogspot.com, Pasadena Public Information Officer Ann Erdman recalled first meeting Judith when she came to work at City Hall in 1991 and wrote about Judith’s impact on her and the community.

Erdman also remembers how Judith maintained her zeal for public service, even in the face of battling cancer, which Erdman recalled had gone into remission, then came back, only to go into remission again and then recur, all over a roughly 15-year period.

“I bonded quickly with all of the field reps, but there was a certain difficult period I went through with my job a few months after I started working here when Judith showed me an abundance of support and friendship that really helped get me through the tough times. I have never, ever forgotten that. She rallied to the point that I wanted to stick it out,” Erdman wrote.

“She didn’t let the disease define her life. She never let it diminish who she was. She never let it get in the way of being Judith,” she wrote.

Erdman noted that Judith and her husband first met when they were students at Blair High School, and that their now-grown children, Erica and Max, “were her top priorities. … She was one extraordinary woman.”

Judith touched many people in both her public and private lives over the past two decades, and Lee reports that hundreds are expected at a memorial service for Judith at 4 p.m. Sunday in front of the couple’s home at 1633 Mar Vista Ave. in Pasadena.

Cole, who is now the city manager of Ventura, was a young, idealistic Pasadena City Council member back in the 1980s and early ‘90s, when the council was known as the Board of City Directors.

As was the case with all of the seven council field reps, Judith had the sometimes thankless tasks of keeping close tabs on Cole’s hectic city business and social agendas — as well as what was happening in City Hall’s various departments, especially as they pertained to their District 2 constituency.

In those days, Cole was a hard-charger in the areas of public transportation, public health, development, affordable housing and planning, the last of his passions resulting in the creation at that time of the city’s general plan, its blueprint for future development.

But Cole was also a lightning rod for controversy sometimes, and working for him could not have been an easy task. For instance, during his time on the council, Cole may have been spearheading redevelopment efforts in Old Pasadena, but he was also drawing both criticism and unwanted national attention for his work on racial and sexual inclusion at City Hall and his public calls for racial and gender openness in the Tournament of Roses’ membership policies.

Every step of the way, it was Judith who cheerfully handled reporters and others looking for answers to questions about her boss’ latest cause.

As Cole told Lee, “She was a person who passionately believed in taking care of her family. But what was remarkable was that her family included her neighborhood, her city and the planet.”

Also this week we note the passing of Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff’s mother in Boca Raton, Fla. Sherrill Ann Schiff was 75.

Politics is a rough business sometimes — and that was evident last week in a letter criticizing Schiff’s position on the War on Terror in some pretty strong terms that we won’t repeat here.

It will suffice at this point to say it is not our intent to censor such sentiments, just as it not our desire to kick people when they are most vulnerable.

We offer our regrets for the publication of that letter at this time of sorrow for the congressman and his family.