Pat Cody, who founded and ran the iconic Cody's Books, with her husband, Fred, for two decades, died last Thursday. She was 87.
The Codys opened the store in Berkeley, Calif., in 1956, and Pat was business manager. The Codys sold the bookstore in 1977 to Andy Ross. The store eventually opened several branches and had new owners. Its last branch closed two years ago (Shelf Awareness, June 22, 2008).
Both during the time the Codys owned the store and afterward, Pat Cody was involved in a range of causes and groups, as recounted in an obituary by her son, Anthony, in the Berkeley Daily Planet. (The store existed in part because in the McCarthy era, Fred Cody's politics made it difficult to find a teaching job.)
Pat was a founder of Women for Peace, which worked against the Vietnam War. She was a treasurer of the Berkeley Free Clinic. She founded the Grief Support Project after Fred died in 1983. She recently helped found Grandmothers Against the War.
The group she was most devoted to was DES Action, which she founded after learning about the serious long-term effects on children of the drug that she had taken, like many mothers in from the '40s to the '60s, as a precaution against miscarriage. She was program director and then newsletter editor at DES Action and was active in the organization until her death.
Pat wrote two books: the memoir Cody's Books: The Life and Times of a Berkeley Bookstore and DES Voices: From Anger to Action.
Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 30, at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way in Berkeley. Donations may be made in her name to DES Action.