Jan. 17, 1929 — Aug. 21, 2011

Alan A. Stambusky, onetime chair of the dramatic arts department at UC Davis and a prominent figure in area drama circles for several decades, passed away Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011, at Kaiser Hospital in Vacaville , after a period of failing health.

He was born in Niagara Falls, N.Y., on Jan. 17, 1929, and attended Niagara University before earning a master’s degree in theatre at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C,. in 1955, and then a Ph.D. in the same subject at the University of Wisconsin in 1960. During this time he also served two years in the U.S. Army, from 1951 to 1953.

In 1955 he married (Rita) Mary Trojan in Chicago. Their children are Katharine Hall, Patrick and Colin, and their spouses Michael Hall, Michelle Rothschild, and Breanne Frady, with three grandchildren Claire Davis, and Maxx and Keaton Stambusky, and four step grandchildren Kyle, Jessica and Ryan Novak, and Cassandra de la Toro.

In 1961 he came to Davis to what was then the department of dramatic art and speech, serving thirty years until his retirement in 1991.

On the UCD campus, Alan had a well-deserved reputation as someone who always spoke his mind. As one former member of the Academic Senate Committee on Committees put it, Alan was someone who constantly looked for common-sense solutions to complicated problems. He was always an independent thinker — and as a reward/punishment he ended up serving on numerous campus committees, which came to treasure his views irrespective of coalitions and disciplinary prejudices.

At UCD Alan directed many plays and musical comedies. A few of his favorites: “Candide,” “Macbeth,” “The Plough and the Stars,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Richard III,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” Misalliance,” “Three Penny Opera,” “The Man of La Mancha,” and “Henry IV, Part I.” He also did several operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan for the Davis Comic Opera Company.

Interestingly, though, one of his greatest contributions to the UCD campus came after his retirement in 1991: his leadership in a long-range effort to produce a videotape history of the campus through interviews with faculty and administrators. Working with Vern Mendel and others, he and a small team of volunteers produced more than 250 hours of videotapes recording accounts of UCD events going back to the 1950s. These are now part of the Shields Library Special Collections, and the project continues.

His acting credits include 15 hot summers in an even hotter tent for Music Circus in Sacramento and cooler seasons in the Globe theater in San Diego. Radio and TV commercials also claimed his attention, as did numerous readings of poetry and prose for Davis audiences of 25 or 2000. For many years he served as a lector at St. James Church in Davis.

Alan was an avid theatergoer. In one eight-month stay in England, he saw 99 plays (London, Stratford, Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam). His wife Mary estimates that altogether he saw more than 700 plays. He loved opera as well, and could be found at the San Francisco opera on many Sunday afternoons.

As one might expect from his outgoing, friendly manner, he blessed his many friends with his dry humor and love of language. Longtime friend Jerry Murphy said of Alan what Hamlet said of his old friend Yorick, “He was a fellow of infinite jest.”

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. James Church, at the corner of 14th and B Streets in Davis.

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