'West Coast Ralph Nader' Dies at 91, Kept Justice Frankfurter Note on Desk
After growing up during the Great Depression, William Bennett dropped out of law school to serve as a bomber pilot in World War II, flying 35 missions over Nazi-occupied Europe and returning with the Distinguished Flying Cross and four Bronze Star medals.
By the time he graduated from University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco and began work as a government lawyer, he wasn’t afraid of anything, his son, William Bennett Jr., tells the San Francisco Chronicle. A tireless consumer advocate described by a daughter as the “West Coast Ralph Nader,” Bennett died last month of heart failure. He was 91 years old.
A former prosecutor and fierce opponent of utility rate increases, Bennett at various times served as a deputy California attorney general, chief counsel for the California Public Utilities Commission and on the State Board of Equalization, among other assignments.
Arguing a death penalty case before the U.S. Supreme Court decades ago, he received a treasured note from Justice Felix Frankfurter that was on his desk at home in Kentfield when he died, the newspaper reports. “There is no reason why I should not tell you how admirably you represented your state in this case,” it reads.
He is survived by his wife of 67 years, three sons, a daughter and four grandsons.
