John Wedemeyer, 81; Former Director of State Department of Social Welfare

John M. Wedemeyer, director of the former California Department of Social Welfare from 1959 until he resigned in a dispute with then-Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown in 1966, has died in Sacramento at 81.

An official with social welfare agencies in Wyoming and Washington state from 1933 through 1949, Wedemeyer joined the California Department of Social Welfare--later to become the Department of Social Services--in 1950.

Nine years later, after leaving state government for five years to work for private and county agencies in Northern California, he was appointed chief of the state social welfare department by Brown.

A strong opponent of Brown-backed proposals for greater local control and flexibility in welfare administration, Wedemeyer incurred the further wrath of the governor when--reportedly without Brown’s approval--he negotiated contracts that would have paid welfare rights groups to help the poor obtain all the benefits to which they were entitled.

In a letter to Wedemeyer, Brown said he “strongly disapproved” of some elements of the contracts and was “firmly opposed “ to them. Wedemeyer, calling the letter a “personal attack,” promptly resigned.

In subsequent years, he worked as a private researcher and consultant and taught at Cal State Sacramento.

Wedemeyer, who died Tuesday after a long illness, leaves his wife, Helen Gullett Wedemeyer; a daughter, Helen DeLong of San Jose; a son, John Wedemeyer of San Diego, and two granddaughters.