Continuing a legacy of service
 

Meet Cathy and Jim.

Cathy and Jim Koshland are a landmark pair — the first engaged couple to graduate together from Haverford College, Pennsylvania — where Cathy was one of six women to attend what had previously been an all-male institution. Cathy’s father was a graduate of Haverford. Jim was encouraged to attend the college by his parents, Daniel and Marian Koshland, professors of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley, who had been visiting professors and appreciated Haverford’s Quaker tradition and strong honor code.

Cathy credits her parents with instilling a deep sense of service to the community. “My father was a Quaker and a physician; my mother was the ‘consummate volunteer.’ There was the expectation that one would be involved in the community, and there was a very high value put on education.”

Married in 1975, the couple enrolled in Stanford University, Jim to pursue a law degree and Cathy, who had graduated with a degree in art, to study mechanical engineering. “I had worked in Washington, D.C. and was interested in policy questions regarding energy and pollution,” says Cathy.

Upon completion of her doctorate, Cathy obtained a faculty appointment in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. Today, Cathy is Vice Provost of Academic Planning and Facilities. Their daughters Sarah and Maggie both graduated from UC Berkeley. “It made me a better faculty member,” says Cathy, “to see the university through our children’s eyes.” Their son, Jacob, is following in his parents’ footsteps and is attending Williams College, a small liberal arts school in Massachusetts.

The Koshland name is well-known in the Bay Area where Jim’s grandfather, Daniel Koshland, Sr., a major leader of our San Francisco Jewish community, was actively involved in the management of Levi Strauss & Co. Jim, who is a partner at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, continues the Koshland tradition serving as president of the Jewish Community Federation since 2008, as chair of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund (JCEF) Grants Allocations Committee from 2002 -2008, and as the 2006 chair of the Federation’s Annual Campaign. “With the benefit of the Community Study we have integrated services with our agencies and synagogues, emphasizing engagement and building community,” says Jim. As the Allocations chair, Jim saw first hand the value of unrestricted Endowment funds. “They are the golden gifts,” he says. “They give us the freedom to respond to the community’s needs.”

Jim has served on the Board of Trustees, University of California Berkeley Foundation, the Strategic Council for the Dean of the Stanford Law School, the Board of the San Francisco School Volunteers and the Campus for Jewish Life. He and Cathy have stressed both the value of education and service to their three children. In 1998, they established a JCEF philanthropic fund to facilitate their response to both the Jewish and general community. “Our children all have the sense of what it means to give back to the community, as well as a sense of stewardship,” says Cathy. The tradition will continue.