Feinstein's name could soon grace an airport terminal and a Navy ship
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s final years were marred by her deteriorating health, the loss of her husband and a bitter family dispute over money.
But since her death in September at age 90, her admirers have moved quickly to honor her accomplishments as the first woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco and the first woman to become a U.S. senator from California.
Soon, numerous parts of Feinstein’s home state could be named in her honor: a bicycle trail along Lake Tahoe where she pedaled as a youngster; Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County; the Elk River Trail in Humboldt County.
“There were things we thought needed to be done to honor her,” said Jim Lazarus, who worked for Feinstein in various capacities, including as her deputy mayor in the 1980s. “I just would have preferred some of this be done while she was alive.”
Her former aides in Washington are discussing with the secretary of the Navy the possibility of naming a ship after her, said Jim Gonzalez, a special assistant to Feinstein in the 1980s.
But the priority for a group of local luminaries who call themselves the Dianne Feinstein 100Plus Committee — because the group already had 117 members six weeks after her death — is the international terminal at the San Francisco International Airport. The group has submitted a renaming application to the Airport Commission, which will hold a public hearing on the matter next month.
“I’m fighting for this to be the first, instead of a trail in Humboldt County,” Gonzalez said with a laugh.
John Martin, the retired longtime director of the San Francisco International Airport, said he first had the idea 25 years ago, but airport rules allow such honors only for people who have died or have been retired from public service for at least two years. Feinstein kept working until the end, casting a vote in the Senate to keep the government funded about 12 hours before she died.
Martin said that Feinstein, as mayor, helped settle a dispute between airlines and the city, a deal that contributed to the airport’s expansion and longterm financial success.
She used the airport regularly for business and personal travel and, as she did around the city, regularly pointed out what needed to be fixed. In one instance, Martin said, he changed the custodial schedule after she noted that the airport looked dirty in the middle of the afternoon.
As campaigns to pay tribute to Feinstein gain traction, her family has started to resolve parts of a dispute over her estate. A vacation home in Stinson Beach that caused a disagreement this past summer sold last month for $9.1 million, $600,000 above the asking price — an eyepopping figure even in the exorbitant world of Northern California’s coastal real estate. The family remains in mediation as it sorts out the rest of the assets that belonged to Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum, a wealthy financier who died in 2022.
Efforts are also underway to preserve Feinstein’s papers. After Feinstein’s death, under congressional rules, her aides had 60 days to clear out her offices in Washington, San Francisco, Fresno, Los Angeles and San Diego.
Joanne Hayes-white, a former San Francisco fire chief who served as Feinstein’s Northern California director for her final 18 months in the Senate, said that aides sent 100 boxes of Feinstein’s papers and other items to Stanford University, where Feinstein graduated in 1955. Whatever Stanford does not take will be given to the San Francisco Historical Society.
The university did not respond to a request for comment, but it has posted several job listings for archivists to work on the Feinstein Papers Project. Hayes-white said the senator and Stanford entered an archival agreement several years ago.
“She was a huge inspiration to me,” Hayeswhite said. “I know naming an airport or an institution should not be taken lightly, but I think it’s a nobrainer.”