Alvin Duskin

Alvin Duskin (1931 – July 25, 2021) was a San Francisco Bay Area educator, entrepreneur, and activist known for leading a series of campaigns in the 1970s.

These initiatives included anti-highrise ads, a battle to stop the sale of Alcatraz Island to a Texas oilman, and an initiative that prevented the development of nuclear power plants in California.

Duskin collaborated with journalists, activists, and ad-men in these efforts.

Duskin was born in San Francisco in 1931, went to public school, and worked in his family's sweater factory as a teenager.

He enrolled at Stanford University in 1948.

As an undergraduate, he was an English major.

After two years, he transferred to San Francisco State, where he met his first wife, Constance Slater.

They were married in 1951.

He returned to Stanford as a graduate student, studying for a PhD in philosophy.

After his first year of graduate school, Duskin's funding under the G.I. Bill ran out.

He became a part-time graduate student and took a job selling his family's sweaters to stores in Northern California.

Duskin and Slater's first child, Marcus, was born in 1953, and his second child, Laura, was born in 1956.

By 1958, Duskin realized there were no job opportunities for philosophy teachers at four-year colleges and universities, so he decided to earn a teaching credential as a graduate student at San Francisco State.

After a semester of classes and student teaching, he was offered a faculty position at SF State teaching freshman English.

Duskin was also recognized as the founder of the Alvin Duskin Company, a women's fashion label established in the 1960s.

The brand achieved national distribution and funded many of Duskin's anti-war and environmental campaigns.

In the later stages of his career, he founded or co-founded start-ups, serving as CEO in wind, hydro, conservation, and food companies.

Father of David Duskin, Ceres Rutan, Zoe Duskin, and grandfather of Lakan Duskin, Adlaw Duskin, Mojave Rutan, Lucia Rutan, Max Abrams, Henry Abrams, and Bruce Abrams.

Early in 1960, Duskin heard that Emerson College was to be formed in Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula.

Emerson would be part of a group of "free schools" on a plateau above Point Lobos that would be called Walden West.

He called the founder, Mark Goldes; met with him; and, at 29 years of age, accepted a position as Dean of Emerson College and philosophy teacher.

After the first year, as the school began receiving public recognition, he became president of the college and chairman of its board.

The college then moved to San Francisco and the name was changed to San Francisco New School, to avoid confusion with Emerson College of Boston.

In its new, urban environment, the college attracted many more students; and faculty volunteered to teach on a part-time basis.

In 1962, his third child, Sarah, was born.

With three children, Duskin needed a better income and was offered a position as head of the Summerhill School, which was to be formed in New York.

He accepted the job, but the start date was delayed until 1965.

To cover a year's loss of income he started a small store to sell women's sweaters with the intention of returning to teaching in a year.

Early in the life of his store, a woman came in and said she had seen knit dresses at a downtown San Francisco store that looked like his sweaters.

She suggested Alvin might want to lengthen his sweaters and market them as dresses.

He took her advice.

The dresses began regularly selling out.

He founded The Alvin Duskin Company to make and sell dresses and the company quickly became a success.

Duskin decided to build his brand into a women's clothing company with national distribution.

Over the next seven years he expanded his factory and staff.

His dresses were a hit with young, hip women.

One, the Peace Dress, which had peace symbols knit into the fabric, was called in the New York Times, "the fastest-selling dress in history."

Stores such as Bloomingdale's and Macy's created Alvin Duskin departments.

Duskin was managing two disparate careers: one, as a capitalist dress manufacturer, and another, that of a left-leaning social activist.

He became well known in the Bay Area through his environmental campaigns and anti-war activities.