The David Pesonen Papers include materials produced and acquired by Pesonen relating to his professional activities as an environmental activist, lawyer, and judge in the San Francisco Bay Area.

David Pesonen was an environmental activist, lawyer, and judge in the San Francisco Bay Area. After graduating from Boalt Law School, at the University of California, in 1968, he began work at a San Francisco law firm and became involved in the anti-nuclear movement. He was elected chairman of Californians for Nuclear Safeguards, and was one of the authors of Proposition 15—an unsuccessful 1976 ballot initiative to restrict nuclear power production in California. He was also involved in the successful opposition to proposed nuclear power plants near Bodega Bay, in Sonoma County, and Point Arena, in Mendocino County. In 1979 Pesonen was appointed by Governor Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. to the office of Director of Forestry. In the final days of Governor Brown's term in office, he appointed Pesonen to the Superior Court in Contra Costa County. He ran unsuccessfully for reelection to the post in 1984.

9 cartons; 11.25 linear feet

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Collection is open for research.