Sandra Lamb Sanford, 1931-2015

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our founding member, Dr. Sandra Lamb.

Dr. Sandra Lamb Sanford passed Wednesday April Dr. Sandra Lamb Sanford29th , 2015 in Santa Rosa, California a week after her 84th birthday. Sandra was born April 20th, 1931 to Gertude and Philip Katzen in Manhattan, New York. The Katzen family, including younger brother Howard, lived in Brooklyn, until moving to Miami when Sandra was a teenager. Sandra graduated from Miami Beach High School in 1948. She attended University of Miami where she met her first husband John Lamb. They eloped and married in 1950 and moved to Greenwich Village in New York for John to start his first accountant role at a major accounting firm. The next year they moved to Los Angeles. Sandra continued her education at UCLA where she received a Bachelors degree with highest honors in 1954 and a PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry in 1959. This was an exceptional achievement for a woman with a child at the time. While raising four children, she had a distinguished teaching career at several California Universities including UCLA and UCSB. She was Chair of the Department of Physical Sciences and Mathematics at Mt. St. Mary’s College in Brentwood. In addition she worked at Global Geochemistry Corporation in Los Angeles and earned a MS degree, in Engineering Management at UCLA in 1983.

Dr. Lamb was a member of the American Chemical Society since 1954, and was elected chair of the Southern California Section in 1988. She also assisted with the founding of the California Los Padres Section in 1994 where they named an award in her honor. Sandra was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Alpha Chi Sigma, Sigma Xi, and Phi Beta Kappa.

In 1976 the Lamb family moved to a small Avocado ranch in Carpinteria, California. John and Sandra divorced in 1980. Sandra then moved to Sherman Oaks, California where she met and married David Sanford in 1990. Interestingly Dave was also an accountant working for a toy manufacturing company. When Sandra took early retirement from UCLA she and Dave moved to Port Hueneme. However Sandra couldn’t stop teaching, and took a part time position at UCSB. In 2002 Sandra and Dave moved to Sebastopol, California to be near family. Always active, Sandy volunteered at the Sonoma County Library literacy Program, was a member of TOPS, and active in Autumn Leaves seniors group. Sandra loved reading, sewing, crocheting, knitting and quilting. When her grandchildren were small she delighted in making Halloween costumes for them. She loved to travel and visited many foreign countries including Panama, Peru, Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Canada, Greece, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan.

Sandra’s greatest love and legacy was her family, who will miss her dearly. Her passion for academics was inherited by her children who all hold either Bachelor or Masters degrees. She is survived by her husband David Sanford, her four children, Beth Lamb, Megan Timpany (Donald), Brian Lamb (Wendy), Amy Hartman (Philip). She was Grandma Tutu to her 8 Grandchildren, Jamie (Francesca), Jessica (Danny), Alexis, Amber, Dawson, Hana, Jordan and Aaron. She has three great grandchildren Miles, Aria and Jordan.

A celebration of her life will be held at 2 pm on Saturday May 9th 2015 at Wischemann Hall , 465 Morris Street in Sebastopol, California.