SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
              Copyright 1989, San Jose Mercury News

 DATE: Friday, January 20, 1989
 PAGE: 1F                        EDITION: Morning Final
 SECTION: California News        LENGTH:   10 in.  Medium
 ILLUSTRATION: Photo
 SOURCE: McClatchy News Service
 DATELINE: Davis

           HYDROGEN BOMB CREATOR IS MAN WITHOUT A STREET

    Edward Teller, the ''father of the hydrogen bomb,'' won't have 
a namesake street in nuclear-free Davis after all.
    The liberal majority of the city council decided Wednesday 
night it made a mistake when it named a street in a new south 
Davis research park ''Teller Avenue.''
    ''This may not be a person we wish to have a street named 
after,'' said Councilwoman Ann Evans, who broke a 2-2 tie by 
voting to rename the street.
    Teller, a controversial scientist at Lawrence Livermore 
National Laboratory, is not terribly popular among peace 
activists, and Davis has more than its share of them.
    Last August, every single ''Teller Avenue'' sign was 
vandalized within a week of being erected, public works director 
David Pelz said.
    Ostensibly, the council decided to rename the street because 
of an unwritten policy that streets not be named after living 
people. Pelz said the staff member who approved the final street 
names for University Research Park didn't realize that Teller, who 
first achieved fame for his work on the hydrogen bomb in the early 
1950s, was still alive.
    But Councilman Jerry Adler, who voted against changing the 
name, said ''Teller Avenue'' would have become an issue even if 
Teller were dead.
    He sarcastically proposed asking Teller what he thinks of 
having a street named after him in Davis, which has declared 
itself a symbolic ''nuclear-free zone.''
    Adler's idea raised the ire of Councilman David Rosenberg, who 
argued the real issue was simply the fact that Teller is very much 
alive.
    ''I think that motion was singularly inappropriate,'' 
Rosenberg told Adler. Before the meeting, Councilman Maynard 
Skinner, who opposed changing the name, said he was only concerned 
if the city had a formal policy against naming streets after 
living people.
    ''In terms of professor Teller himself, well, Shakespeare 
wrote a play, 'Much Ado About Nothing.' I think this may fall into 
that category,'' Skinner said. ''The man has had a distinguished 
scientific and educational career, and I think we should look at 
that.''
    Rosenberg, Evans and Mayor Michael Corbett voted to start the 
process of renaming the street.

 CAPTION: *Edward*Teller*

 KEYWORDS:  ROAD NAME CHANGE DAVIS END NUCLEAR BOMB CELEBRITY
END OF DOCUMENT.