Barbara Pearson; Pioneer for Affirmative Action Programs

Barbara Morton Pearson, a pioneer in affirmative action programs who chaired the California Job Training Coordinating Council, has died at the age of 75.

A third-generation resident of Los Angeles, Mrs. Pearson died Sunday after a long illness.

She was the first director of equal opportunity and affirmative action at USC, serving from 1969 to 1989 and developing the first affirmative action plan for a major research institution.

Mrs. Pearson also served as head of the California Job Training Coordinating Council, supervising the expenditure of several million dollars in training funds. She was on the governor’s advisory body on job training and a member of the state Council on Vocational Education.

A champion of equality for the elderly as well as for all ethnic groups, she said in 1993: “Older workers are healthier and more active today, and want to remain at, or return to work after retirement.”

Mrs. Pearson, who had a home for many years in Dana Point, was appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian to the state Boating and Waterways Commission. In 1985, she became the first woman to chair that group.

In Los Angeles, she served as chairwoman of the Community Redevelopment Agency in the late 1960s, overseeing its Bunker Hill redevelopment project in Downtown Los Angeles. She was a local delegate to the Commission of the Californias from 1975 to 1991.

An active volunteer, Mrs. Pearson was president of the Junior League of Los Angeles and of Las Madrinas, the support group for Childrens Hospital. She was also active in the Junior Philharmonic Committee, Town and Gown of USC, and was a co-founder of USC’s Trojan League.

Mrs. Pearson is survived by her husband, Anthony; five children, Barbara Stone, Joe Shell Jr., Harold Shell, David Shell and Diane Shell, and five grandchildren.

Visitation is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. today at White’s Funeral Home in Bellflower, and the funeral will be Thursday at 11:30 a.m. at the Church of the Recessional, Forest Lawn Glendale.

The family has asked that memorial donations be made to the Norris Cancer Center at USC or to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.