Judith Arango Henderson, 75; Design Columnist

Judith Arango Henderson, 75, a designer and San Francisco Chronicle columnist who wrote about the design of everyday objects, died Saturday in Piedmont, Calif., of pancreatic cancer.

Born and raised in Florida, Arango Henderson studied philosophy at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, graduating in the late 1940s with a degree in philosophy. In 1949, she moved to Bogota, Colombia, where she freelanced for Time and Life magazines while working for the U.S. Information Service. She met architect Jorge Arango in Colombia and married him in Miami.

In 1959 they opened Arango Inc., a well-known Miami store that emphasized beautiful but functional objects, from furniture to accessories.

In 1981 Arango Henderson, who eventually divorced Arango and six years ago remarried, created the Arango Design Foundation to promote awareness of the role of design in everyday life. The foundation has mounted several traveling exhibitions, including one in 1996 that was curated by Arango Henderson and featured well-designed products made from recycled objects.

Asked once to define good design, she replied: “What looks good and works well. If it is handsome but doesn’t function, it’s a dud. If it works but gives no aesthetic pleasure, send the thing back to the drawing board. We deserve both beauty and practicality in the spaces, thoroughfares, buildings and objects that surround us.”

She applied these principles to the objects she reviewed in her column, “Design of the Month,” in which she evaluated everything from mops to disposable sunglasses.