Attorney Jeremy Hass, a passionate area historian long active in efforts to preserve the original fortress erected by Spanish colonialists in what would become downtown Santa Barbara, died 6/30 at age 78 of heart disease. Hass relentlessly lobbied elected politicians in Sacramento during the 1970s and 1980s for the funds necessary to acquire the properties that once composed the Presidio. In addition, he fought to have the project designated as a state park. Fierce and outspoken, Hass would do political combat with younger historians more focused on preserving Santa Barbara’s Chinese and Japanese pasts, and eventually the Presidio project would encompass aspects of all these overlaying pasts.
