Felipe (Phillip L) Sanchez Paris, who was for a brief period acting director of elections for the City & County of San Francisco, died at home peacefully in his sleep July 31. Born in Gary, Indiana in 1941, he graduated from Georgetown University and the University of Southern California from which he received an M.A. in 1967 and a Ph.D. in 1973. The majority of his professional career was dedicated to facilitating multicultural education and equity in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. He was recognized as a “change agent” in executive and management circles and was utilized widely as a consultant in organizational behavior and change. In 1973, Paris became the State Title I Coordinator, Continuing Education and Community Service. This federally funded program essentially worked through the institutional members of the California Post Secondary Education Commission.

He then moved on to become the executive director of the Multicultural Equity Division of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon. This technical training and technical assistance center provided services to elementary and secondary school districts in the Pacific Basin and the Pacific Northwest. From 1982 until 2000 he served as a professor of public policy and administration at California State University, Bakersfield where he was also acting graduate studies dean.

Paris was an active lay leader in the Episcopal Diocese of California and a member of St. Gregory of Nyssa Church on Potrero Hill. In 2010, he played a key role in planning the Bay Area interfaith commemorations of the martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. For several years he was a member of the board of Bayview Opera House, which he felt was a natural extension of his commitment to the equal access of all children to quality educational programs.

Paris is survived by his husband, Otis Charles, the retired Episcopal bishop of Utah; two brothers Adrian and John and their spouses; nine children and their spouses; 11 grandchildren; four great grandchildren; numerous cousins in Almeria, Spain; and his San Francisco family and friends.