Joseph Walter Cobb; Helped Found Human Relations Agencies

Joseph Walter Cobb, 80, a sociologist who studied racial stereotyping and helped found the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations and the Fair Housing Council for the city of Los Angeles. He served as consultant to the county group for 20 years, and helped pave the way for the founding of similar city and county agencies across the country. A native of Vermillion, S.D., Cobb earned graduate degrees at USC and taught at the University of North Dakota and Redlands University. After his retirement from the county agency in 1981, he served on the city Commission on Human Relations. He was a strong advocate of nuclear disarmament and, at the age of 72, walked across the United States as part of the Great Peace March of 1986. This past March, he completed his sixth Los Angeles Marathon, shortly before his 80th birthday. On June 18 in Los Angeles of complications of brain cancer.