John Keith Mortenson, a founding staff member at UC Santa Cruz, died on Jan. 10 in Salem, Oregon.
Mortenson worked as the personnel manager for UC Santa Cruz from 1964 through 1981. He was born on August 29, 1934 in Monterey, California to Norvin and Erna Mortenson and was raised in Monterey. Mortenson attended Monterey High School and graduated from UC Berkeley in 1957 with a B.A. in political science. At UC Berkeley, he was a member of the ROTC, crew team, and Kappa Alpha fraternity. John served in the U.S. Army as an intelligence officer from 1957 to 1963 in active duty and in the reserves.
He is survived by his wife Nancy Mortenson, daughters, Andrea Cox and Alexa Claybon, step son, Francesco Brown, and grandchildren, Allaura Cox, Christopher Cox, Hazel Claybon and Edith Claybon. Read the obituary in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
