William Newsom III

William Alfred Newsom III (1934–2018) was a California lawyer and judge who served on the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, and was a longtime legal and business adviser to the Getty family; he was godfather to John Paul Getty III John Paul Getty IIIJohn Paul Getty III (1956–2011) was a grandson of the oil magnate J. Paul Getty who was kidnapped in Rome in 1973, had his right ear cut off and was freed after his family paid a ransom; he was paralysed by a drug-induced stroke in 1981 and died in England in 2011.Open the full entry, helped deliver the ransom in the 1973 kidnapping, and was the father of California Governor Gavin Newsom Gavin NewsomGavin Newsom is an American Democratic politician who has served as the 40th governor of California since 2019; he previously served as mayor of San Francisco and lieutenant governor of California and founded the PlumpJack Group.Open the full entry.

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Key facts

February 15, 1934Born in San Francisco

William Alfred Newsom III was born in Depression-era San Francisco on February 15, 1934, to William A. Newsom Jr. and Christine Newsom, into a large Irish Catholic family; he was the second of six children. One of his sisters married Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law.⁠[1][2]

1951–1955High School and College

He attended the Jesuit-run St. Ignatius High School, graduating in 1951; Gordon P. Getty and J. Paul Getty Jr.John Paul Getty Jr.John Paul Getty Jr. (1932–2003), known as Sir Paul Getty, was a son of oil businessman J. Paul Getty and a Britain-based philanthropist and book collector who made large gifts to the National Gallery, the British Film Institute and cricket, and received an honorary KBE in 1986.Open the full entry, sons of the oil magnate J. Paul Getty J. Paul GettyJ. Paul Getty (1892–1976) was an American oil businessman and art collector who held a controlling interest in the Getty Oil Company and founded the J. Paul Getty Museum; his bequest built the J. Paul Getty Trust after his death.Open the full entry, were his close childhood friends and schoolmates there. In 1955 he received an undergraduate degree in French literature from the University of San Francisco.⁠[1][2]

Early 1960sLaw Degree from Stanford

He earned a law degree (JD) and a master’s degree in English literature from Stanford University Stanford UniversityStanford University is a research university in California founded by Leland and Jane Stanford in 1885 and opened in 1891.Open the full entry. After law school he served as a commissioner of the San Francisco Superior Court.⁠[3][1]

1966–1973Marriage and Children

In 1966 he married Tessa Menzies; they had a son, Gavin, born in 1967, and a daughter, Hilary, born in 1968. The couple separated when Gavin was two and divorced in 1973; during his childhood Gavin afterward spent occasional weekends and summers with his father.⁠[1][4]

Late 1960s–1975Practicing Law in Rome and Tahoe City

In the late 1960s he worked as an attorney for Rome-based Getty Oil Italiana, and he then opened a private law practice in Tahoe City, California, which he ran until 1975. Gavin Newsom has written in his memoir that his father moved to Lake Tahoe after several unsuccessful political runs.⁠[1][5]

1973Helps Deliver the Getty Kidnapping Ransom

He was a good friend of J. Paul Getty Jr. and godfather to his son, John Paul Getty III. In the early hours of July 10, 1973, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III disappeared from Piazza Navona in Rome; months later, after the kidnappers cut off one of the boy’s ears and mailed it, his grandfather J. Paul Getty agreed to pay about $3 million, $2.2 million of it from his own pocket.⁠[3][6]

Newsom, then a lawyer in Tahoe City, helped deliver the ransom and played an important role in the negotiations for the boy’s release; he later called the task “an interesting sort of job.” On December 15, 1973, John Paul Getty III turned up at a gas station in the Italian countryside.⁠[3][1][6]

1975Appointed to the Placer County Superior Court

In 1975 California Governor Jerry Brown appointed him a judge of the Placer County Superior Court. On the bench he ordered the Placer County Board of Supervisors to upgrade its substandard jail or face having it shut down. From the late 1970s he lived in Dutch Flat in Placer County.⁠[3][7]

March 1978Elevated to the California Court of Appeal

In March 1978 Jerry Brown appointed him to the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, in San Francisco.⁠[1][7][4]

1988–2011Getty Family Trust Roles

For many years he served as a legal and business adviser to Gordon P. Getty and J. Paul Getty Jr. and managed trusts for the Getty family; he represented John Paul Getty III’s parents in their divorce and described the Getty family as “almost an extension of my own.” He was a trustee of the Ronald Family Getty Trust from 1988 to 2011 and trust administrator for the Gordon Getty Gordon GettyGordon Getty is an American composer and a son of the oilman J. Paul Getty; as sole trustee of the Sarah C. Getty Trust he sold the trust’s Getty Oil stake to Texaco in 1984, and he has composed operas including Plump Jack and Usher House.Open the full entry Family Trust from 1994 to 2009.⁠[1][3]

1995Retires from the Court of Appeal

In 1995 he retired from the California Court of Appeal to work full time for the Getty family.⁠[1][3]

2004–2011Swears In His Son

In 2004 he swore in his son, Gavin Newsom, as mayor of San Francisco; on January 10, 2011, he again administered the oath, in the California Senate chamber, when Gavin Newsom became lieutenant governor.⁠[2][8]

2011–2018Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation

From 2011 until his death he was a director and president of the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.⁠[1]

December 12, 2018Death

On the morning of December 12, 2018, Newsom died of complications of old age at his home in San Francisco, aged 84, and he was buried in the family plot in the Historic Dutch Flat Cemetery. During his life he had served on the boards of environmental organizations including Earthjustice, the Environmental Defense Fund, Friends of the River, Sierra Watch and the Mountain Lion Foundation.⁠[4][1][7]

Former Governor Jerry Brown called him “a longtime friend, a champion of the environment.” A statement from the spokesperson for then Governor-elect Gavin Newsom called him “a public servant of profound accomplishment.”⁠[4][2]