Michael William Stamp

Michael was born to Ronald and Mylet (Bruggeman) Stamp in Des Moines, Iowa, on December 10, 1950. He was the middle child of three. His family moved to California when he was a small child and Michael never left. He attended public schools in Santa Rosa and then Carmichael, earned both his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, started his legal career in Oakland, and then moved to the Monterey Peninsula, where he raised his family and lived for over 40 years.

Michael loved being an attorney and spent his professional life advocating for civil rights, transparency, the environment, and always against injustice. His legal impact was large, and he celebrated many victories on behalf of his clients over his accomplished career. Michael believed in good government. He was more than willing to take on difficult and at times unpopular cases for clients who needed a fierce advocate, including one of the first police shooting cases in Monterey County, the first major sexual harassment case against a public agency, and numerous racial and gender discrimination cases, among many other matters. The impact of his legal work benefited both his clients and also those who then did not have to fight similar battles because Michael had been so effective and fearless.

He began his career in the City Attorney’s office in Oakland, where he was once described by the Oakland Tribune during the city’s landmark eminent domain lawsuit against the Oakland Raiders as “young and hip of hairdo,” which made him laugh. He moved on to private practice in Pacific Grove and Monterey, where his adversaries included anyone not committed to the ethical distribution of justice, including local governments and prominent developers. Among his many honors, he was bestowed with the William O. Douglas Award in 2001 by the Sierra Club for outstanding use of the legal process to achieve environmental goals, and with the Ralph B. Atkinson Award in 2014 by the Monterey chapter of the ACLU for Michael’s lifetime commitment to protecting civil liberties. The Monterey County Bar Association honored Michael with its laurels: in 2011, the Chief Justice Gibson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Community Service in 2011, and in 2018, the Lewis L. Fenton Award for Excellence in Advocacy.

Michael was a longtime law professor, first at Berkeley and then at the Monterey College of Law (MCL) where he taught constitutional law to hundreds of students over the years. His Heisler Moot Court program at MCL, which he co-founded and directed in partnership with Joel Franklin, was one of MCL’s signature programs of distinction and professionally prepared generations of the Central Coast’s current attorneys for their courtroom careers. Michael loved to teach and to mentor and to expose students to complex issues and to challenge them to contradictory schools of thought. He is being honored this month by MCL as Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus.

In his private life, Michael loved traveling, walking in nature, reading poetry and detective novels, listening to music --often reggae, watching baseball, and spending quality time with his grandchildren, whom he adored. He was compassionate, quick-witted, saw humor everywhere, and loved to converse and laugh with his many friends.

Michael is survived by his wife, Molly Erickson; his son and daughter-in-law, Trent and Jill Stamp of Hermosa Beach, California; his son and daughter-in-law, Jake Stamp and Logan Fordham of Warren, Maine; and his two grandchildren: Hope Stamp, who attends Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and Luke Stamp, who attends his grandfather’s alma mater, the University of California at Berkeley. He is also survived by his younger brother Scott and his sister-in-law Laurie of Camino, California. His older sister Ronnie predeceased him.

A celebration of Michael’s life will be held this spring. For those who are interested, tax-deductible donations may be made in his honor for the newly established Michael W. Stamp Scholarship at Monterey College of Law at montereylaw.edu/give or by sending a check to MCL at 100 Colonel Durham Street, Seaside, CA, 93955, and designating "Michael W. Stamp Scholarship" in the memo line. The scholarship will benefit law students who have shown an interest in and a commitment to the issues Michael cared about.