Robert N. Schiff
Robert N. Schiff, a longtime San Francisco and East Bay resident who built a distinguished legal career, enjoyed a loving marriage to his wife Sue Ann, and was immensely proud of sons Robert and David, died on Thursday, March 15, after a long illness. He was 71.
Robert Nathan Schiff was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on December 9, 1946 and moved with his parents Frances and Herschal Schiff and sister Margaret to San Francisco in 1958. He attended Lick-Wilmerding High School, graduating in 1965. In 1969 he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and earned his law degree at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in 1973.
After serving a year in the California Attorney General’s Office, he joined the law department of Pacific Gas and Electric Company as a litigator. In 1977, he joined the firm of Fisher & Hurst, where he specialized in insurance law eventually serving as the firm’s managing partner. In 1998, he became a partner in the San Francisco office of Haight Brown & Bonesteel and practiced there until his illness forced him to retire in 2015.
Bob was one of the most highly regarded insurance coverage attorneys in the Bay Area, known in particular as an expert in reinsurance matters. He was an annually designated Northern California Super Lawyer and also co-wrote and, until his illness, regularly updated the introductory chapter in the CEB text on California Liability Insurance Practice, which is still in publication.
He believed in the Jewish concept of tikkun olam (Hebrew for repair of the world) and was a committed civil libertarian, devoting his extracurricular time to issues such as reproductive rights, freedom of speech, and separation of church and state. He was most active in the American Jewish Congress, the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council and Temple Sinai in Oakland.
Most important, Bob was a mensch, a good friend and mentor, respected and beloved by colleagues and clients as he was by friends and family. He was a truly funny guy, with a dry sense of humor and acerbic wit that he retained until the very end. Bob was also a consistent wearer of bow ties and occasionally taken for a Larry David lookalike when not in one. A loyal fan of the San Francisco Giants and Cal football, he took his sons to games during both teams’ many losing seasons and a few winning ones.
Bob had Lewy Body Dementia, the same disease that afflicted Robin Williams. He handled his illness with dignity, grace and strength, making sure that others did not suffer because he was suffering.
Bob is survived by his wife of almost 46 years Sue Ann, sons Robert and David, daughters-in-law Harper Matheson and Laura Paine Schiff, grandchildren Roxanne and George, as well as his sister Marge Madigan, her husband Tom, 10 nieces and nephews, and seven grandnieces and grandnephews. Sue Ann’s mother Blossom Levin calls him her fourth son and her three brothers thought of Bob as one of them.
The family wishes to thank Erica Dunning, Endurance Ediae, Sandra Frantz, Vanessa Jerome, Alondra Torres, Drs. Bennett Zier and Yanek Chiu, and the staff of the Jewish Home of San Francisco and Tender Rose for their care and kindness.
Services will be held Tuesday, March 20, at 1:30pm at Temple Sinai, 2808 Summit Street in Oakland, with burial at the Home for Eternity at the end of Piedmont Avenue, followed by a reception at a nearby location and minyan that evening.
Donations in Bob’s memory and honor may be made to Camperships for Nebagamon, the camp he attended as a boy; the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, or a charity of your choosing.