Alan Duane Ullberg

Alan Duane Ullberg died on July 7, 2022, after a long illness, in the company of his son, Rohin Ullberg. He is also survived by his wife Patricia Ullberg, daughter-in-law Diane Wallander, and grandsons Steven and Wyatt Ullberg. His daughter, Delia Ullberg predeceased him in 2021.

Alan was born on September 12, 1933, in Portland, Oregon, to Norma E. and John L. Ullberg. He graduated from Reed College in Portland in 1954 and worked his way through college with construction jobs, specializing in building ornamental rock walls for suburban home gardens. After graduation and a two-year enlistment in the army to fulfill his National Service, he decided to study law.

He was accepted to the Harvard Law School class of 1960, where he developed an abiding respect for the rule of law which influenced the rest of his career and life. He met Patricia, his future wife, while in school. They married on May 31, 1960 and left after the reception to drive to San Francisco in Alan's 1951 Plymouth sedan, which had been repaired by a friend of Alan's as a wedding gift. It got them to San Francisco, although, as Alan's uncle later remarked, "It didn't take nerve to cross the country in that thing, it took gall."

His first professional job was as a law clerk for the California Supreme Court, from 1960 to 1966. He clerked for two justices during that period: Thomas P. Kennedy and Mathew Tobriner. One of the legal controversies of the era was the argument for the repeal of capital punishment in California, and he was often involved when such cases crossed his desk.

In 1966 he was offered a job at NASA, the new National Space Agency, at headquarters in Washington, DC. From 1966 to 1968 he served as a special counsel to NASA's first administrator, James E. Webb. These were the years that NASA launched the first American astronauts into space and then achieved the moon launch, an exhilarating and often harrowing time for the entire NASA staff, and particularly for the senior administrative staff.

In 1970 he moved to the Smithsonian Institution to take a position as an associate general counsel, a position he held until his retirement in 1998. During those years the Smithsonian was developing an environmental research center on the Chesapeake Bay south of Annapolis. Because Alan had a background in construction and land management, one of his curliest assignments was to facilitate the purchase of rural land for this large research facility on the Bay. He served as the liaison between the farmers, the Smithsonian and the state - often a controversial position. Alan had similar responsibilities when the Smithsonian built the Hirshhorn Muscum, which opened on the National Mall in 1974.

During his tenure at the Smithsonian he served as an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University, where he created and taught a course for graduate arts management students. He later expanded this course into a book, published in 1981, "Museum Management," a manual which defines professional standards and practice for emerging arts administration professionals. In 1981 he gave the keynote address to the British Museum Association annual meeting in London.

After retirement he taught an evening course at Georgetown Law School for several years. He continued his work with nonprofit organizations in several areas of nonprofit law until later years, when his health forced him to quit his practice.

A private celebration of Alan's life will be held later with family and friends.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial gifts be made to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Donate online at https://serc.si.edu/donate. Checks may be made out to: "SERC" /Alan D. Ullberg Internship Fund" and mailed to: Director of Development, SERC, 647 Contee Wharf Road, Edgewater. MD 21037.