Judith Gruber spent much of her university career helping U.C. Berkeley and the entire U.C. system develop its policy regarding work and family issues, including child care for faculty and staff.
It made sense, since the professor of political science was also a wife and mother of two sons.
Gruber, a member of Congregation Beth El in Berkeley, died at home of brain cancer on Wednesday, June 1. She was 54.
Rabbi Ferenc Raj, spiritual leader of Beth El, said Gruber was so unassuming, that he never realized how well-known she really was.
“Despite the fact that we talked a great deal, we did not talk about her books and articles,” said Raj. “She always talked about her family and Judaism. She loved Judaism and she loved her family.”
Gruber was born in New York City on Sept. 20, 1950. She graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University and received her doctorate from Yale. Her dissertation won the American Political Science Administration’s top award in the field of public administration.
Gruber’s career at Berkeley spanned almost 25 years.
Her expertise in juggling the demands of a career and family was largely based on her own experience. She helped set up two child-care centers and was working on establishing a third. Her work focused on the issues of gender equity, child care, adult dependant care, pregnancy and parenting.
According to the university, the policies she helped draft at Cal helped attract many female professors and served as a model for other universities. She was also the force behind the campus publication, “A Guide for Balancing Work and Family.”
The author of several books, Gruber’s area of expertise also included bureaucracy and government.
She received the university’s highest honor, the Berkeley Citation, and was the first to receive the university’s Faculty Distinguished Service Award. Gruber served as chair of Berkeley’s Political Science Department from 2001 to 2003.
In the fall of 2003, Gruber was told she had brain cancer and that she had six months to live. Raj said that at High Holy Days last fall, she kissed him, remarking, “I’m still here.”
She was alert to the very end, he said. During his last visit with her, she asked for a Jewish teaching. Raj told her the sages say that one should live every day like it may be the last.
“This is how she lived, and I am a witness,” said Raj.
Gruber is survived by her husband, Joseph Houska, and sons David and Aaron, all of Berkeley; and her father, Irving Gruber, of New York City.
Donations can be made to the Early Childhood Education Program Annual Fund, 203 Sproul Hall, U.C. Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1530.