Kerry Landreth Reed

Kerry Landreth Reed died December 6, 2017, at home in San Francisco of cancer. She was 44.

Kerry was born in Oakland in 1973 as a 6th generation Californian but grew up in London where her father’s job took the family in 1978. Her youth in London sparked a life-long passion for travel. She graduated from Philips Exeter Academy and then earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Stanford in 1995 before starting a 20-year career at Goldman Sachs. Kerry worked in Los Angeles and Hong Kong before settling in San Francisco, where she excelled, ultimately becoming a Managing Director in 2011 shortly after her first bout with breast cancer.

With her cancer in remission, Kerry threw herself into her job, motherhood, philanthropy, and volunteering. She joined the Exeter Board of Trustees, chaired Exeter and Stanford reunions, and co-founded the Leadership Council of the Nature Conservancy of California.

Kerry was a voracious reader; she loved hiking with her dogs and family, and skiing with her brother; she was an enthusiastic if impatient angler. She had developed a talent for singing as a child, performing in a cappella groups in high school and college, and she rediscovered her love for singing at age 39, joining fellow school parents as the lead vocalist in a band called Birdseed. She thrived in the spotlight and found a new creative outlet penning several original songs for the band. Music was medicine for Kerry. She kept performing, even when she no longer had the strength to stand onstage, and played her last show just a month before she died. In Kerry’s own words, from her lyrics to the song “Rewind”: “Nothing I ever did or ever said was wasted. I’ve got no regrets, I’ve shed my reward. Every adventure truly was tasted. So I stop the rewind in my mind. I say thanks for all behind me: all that made life what it is today, all that’s evil, all that’s kind.”

Kerry’s cancer returned in spring of 2015. Facing a terminal prognosis, Kerry took on fighting cancer as her new job. She became a fierce advocate for UCSF’s breast cancer program and chaired their Give Breast Cancer the Boot campaign, raising a record $1.2 million in 2016. She also documented her struggle against cancer in a blog that became much more than a diary of the surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy she endured. It was also a tell-all memoir, a travelogue, a book review column, and a deeply personal exploration of her encounter with untimely death.

Above all, Kerry loved her friends and family. Everywhere she lived and worked, people naturally gravitated to Kerry. Her verve and vitality were infectious, and she had an uncommon gift for quickly forming lasting friendships. As her mother described her, “Kerry lived her life in technicolor.” Family dinners were sacrosanct, she never missed a school performance, and she instilled in her children her love of travel, taking them on vacations around the world.

Kerry is survived by her husband Creighton; their children Will and Bebe; her parents Bill and Jeanne; and her brother Peter.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Give Breast Cancer the Boot; the Nature Conservancy of California; or the Tipping Point Community.

Visit nexttriparoundthesun.blog to read Kerry’s account of her last two years fighting cancer, and birdseedband.com to watch and hear Kerry sing.