Longtime APA Director Is Stollman Dies in New Zealand

For decades, the name Israel Stollman, FAICP, was synonymous with urban planning. Known for his comprehensive view of the field, Stollman was instrumental in the 1978 consolidation of two planning groups into one national organization, the American Planning Association.

Stollman, who served as APA's executive director from 1978 to 1993, died February 2, 2005, from a fall in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he was visiting his daughter Sasha. He would have turned 82 on March 15.

"Is's death is a major loss to the field," said Paul Farmer, AICP, APA's current executive director. " He played a major role in guiding the planning movement for over a half century."

The future planner was born in 1923 to Russian Jewish immigrants on New York's Lower East Side. In a September 1993 Planning article by William H. Lucy, Stollman recalled the "rich institutional life" of the neighborhood. His college years, at the City College of New York, were interrupted by a two-and-a-half year stint during World War II with the Army Air Corps. He finally received his B.S. in social science (with a self-devised major in housing and planning) in 1947.

Then it was on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which had one of only six planning programs in the U.S. at the time. He received a master's in city planning in 1948. For his thesis he considered the applicability of Clarence Perry's neighborhood unit concepts to Manhattan's Greenwich Village. According to Lucy, he concluded that "they would have distorted the fabric of life" in the village.

Stollman's 45-year-long career began with a job as junior planner for the Cleveland Planning Commission, where he worked on the city's capital improvement program and later helped to launch the new urban renewal program. During this time, he also taught a class in planning at Western Reserve University.

In 1951, Stollman moved to Youngstown, Ohio, where he became assistant planning director and later planning director. He was invited to Youngstown by Dennis O'Harrow, who was then on leave from his position as executive director of the American Society of Planning Officials, a slot that Stollman would later fill. In Youngstown, he directed the city's first capital improvements program and helped to write new housing and zoning regulations.

Planning consultant Thomas Roberts, AICP, worked for Stollman in Youngstown. Even then, he said in Bill Lucy's 1993 article, he was distinguished by his "social conscience and a concern with fiscal planning."

In the mid-1950s, Stollman led the effort to establish a graduate program in city and regional planning at Ohio State University. He chaired the new department until 1968. According to Lucy, the program focused on physical planning but also paid attention to to "social consequences and political and financial feasibility."

Laurence C. Gerckens, FAICP, an professor emeritus of city and regional planning, recalls his "best friend" as a "great mentor in teaching and administration, who did everything with dignity, respect, and grace."

It was the sudden death of Dennis O'Harrow in 1968 that started Stollman on a new career as association director. He was asked to take over as executive director of ASPO, which was headquartered in Chicago. It was a politically turbulent time, Lucy wrote. Stollman responded with an effort to add black members to then all-white board of directors and to recruit minority planners to the profession.

For several years in the 1970s, much of Stollman's time was taken up by the intricate negotiations leading up to the consolidation of ASPO and the other major planning group, the American Institute of Planners. The American Planning Association was formed in 1978, with Stollman as executive director. By the time of his retirement in 1994, APA membership had grown from 18,000 to 28,000 (it's about 35,000 today).

"Is demonstrated brilliant leadership capabilities in helping to merge AIP and ASPO, said Ron Short, FAICP, president of APA's Arizona chapter in an e-mail to chapter members. "And he then proceeded to build APA as the premier planning organization in America."

Post-consolidation, APA maintains two offices, in Chicago and Washington, D.C. George Marcou, FAICP, a former ASPO board member, served as deputy executive director of the Washington office. "Is was a superb boss," says Marcou. "He was meticulous in selecting managers and steadfast in providing them with leeway to apply their own imagination and initiative. The door to his office was always open. His quiet manner belied a determination to make APA an effective organization serving an ever-expanding membership.

"Is stood for the best in planning — intelligence and idealism tempered by realism. But above all, was a towering sense of integrity."

Like Marcou, who first met Stollman 40 years ago, the Chicago deputy executive director, Frank So, FAICP, also goes back a long way.

"I met Is in 1959 when I was applying to the planning program at Ohio State. He taught many of my classes, and he helped me land a job at ASPO right out of grad school. I left for a few years, until Dennis O'Harrow called and asked if I'd be interested in returning to the staff. When he died, Is took over, so he was my new boss. I was delighted because I knew he had a first-class intellect and was a true comprehensive planner. He realized that in planning cities and regions, everything is related to everything else.

"As executive director of APA, he oversaw its development into a first-class professional and research organization. No doubt about it. And I think he was profoundly respected by anyone who came in contact with him.

"He treated everyone the same way. He was a kind and gentle person, an ethical man of high principles. And he had a great sense of humor." APA staffers remember his good humor at his retirement party when he donned a Beatles wig given him as a parting gift and when he joined in the jokes about his ever-present bow ties.

In the spring of 1994, when Stollman officially retired from APA. U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, AICP (D-Ohio) introduced a tribute in the House of Representatives. "Israel Stollman represents the best our profession has to offer," she wrote, "a desire and ability to make the world a better and more aesthetically pleasing place to live.

"It is those qualities that attracted me, and thousands of other students, to the discipline of urban planning." In 1999, Stollman became a charter member of the AICP College of Fellows.

Others have their own memories. "I had the pleasure of working for Is at ASPO from late 1972 through 1975 and then serving on the ASPO and APA boards during his tenure," wrote Daniel Lauber, AICP. "He was quite a guy. His calm demeanor often masked his incredible passion for sound, ethical, and nondiscriminatory planning."

Charlotte McCaskill, APA's chief operating officer, recalls her first meeting with Is in 1974. "He came to my house to interview me because I had a young child and couldn't easily get to the office. That set the tone for our relationship. I said when he retired that he kept me from being a worrier. When I was nervous about getting something approved, he'd say 'The worst of my foes is worries and woes and all about troubles that never come true.'"

"Is Stollman was responsible for APA's initial contacts with China, visiting Beijing in 1978, and again in the mid-'80s," said Jeff Soule, FAICP, APA's Director of Policy. Stollman accompanied Soule to China in 1996, a visit that Soule says helped establish the growth and development of APA's current China initiative.

After retirement, Stollman remained active in APA, particularly in the area of ethics, a long-time interest. He worked on the AICP Code of Ethics. He also attended meetings of the International Housing and Planning Association and the Society of American City and Regional Planning History. He was a member of the SACRPH board of trustees.

In the last few years, Stollman taught classes in planning history at the northern Virginia campus of the University of Virginia, not far from his Washington home. Katharine Sexton of Washington, one of his three daughters, says his retirement interests were varied. "He loved listening to chamber music, particularly Bach." And, of course, he loved walking in the city. "All of us grew up exploring cities," says Sexton.

A major lifetime interest was collecting stereopticon views of cities, some from as far back as the 1850s. He recently donated some 20,000 slides to the Getty Museum.

Sexton says her father had various writing projects under way, including a memoir. Stollman had heart bypass surgery in 1998 but was considered in good health at the time of his death.

Last fall, he and wife Mary left for an extended visit to Australia and New Zealand, where two of his three daughters live. The couple was planning to return to Washington later this month.

APA executive director Paul Farmer notes that Stollman was a presenter at APA's last two conferences, where "he continued to share his encyclopedic knowledge of planning with today's planners.

"Last year, in Washington," recalls Farmer, "we celebrated the 25th anniversary of APA by making plans for a 100th anniversary celebration of the organized planning movement. Is asked me if I had written the short description of those plans that appeared in the conference program. I said I had, and he responded, with that twinkle in his eye, 'I thought so. Perfect.'

"That simple affirmation of a job well done was the kind of encouragement he gave to thousands of planners throughout their careers. I think we can all say to Is, 'Perfect.'"

An APA commemoration in honor of Israel Stollman is planned for the San Francisco conference. Donations may be made to the Planning Foundation of APA to support the Israel Stollman Ethics Symposium. Two symposium sessions will be held in San Francisco.

Stollman is survived by his wife Mary, three daughters, Sarah and Sasha Stollman and Katharine Sexton, and two grandchildren. A memorial service was held in Sydney on February 9 at the Circle Cafe in Balmain. The service included personal stories and readings from Shakespeare and the Tao Te Ching by family, music by Bach performed by a string trio, and a cantor's readings in Hebrew.

Condolences may be sent to 2505 P St., NW, Washington DC 20007.

Ruth Knack, AICP
Executive editor, Planning

Images: Top — Photo of Is Stollman in Washington, D.C., attending the 2004 APA National Conference. Bottom — Stollman in an undated photo from the APA Archives.