Fred Furth — noted S.F. lawyer, vintner in Sonoma County
Fred Furth, a noted Bay Area antitrust attorney, vintner and philanthropist, has died.
Furth made a fortune with his law practice and lived a flamboyant lifestyle, yet gave away millions to endow a small Catholic primary school in San Francisco in memory of his late daughter.
He also founded and operated the Chalk Hill Winery near Windsor, turning the site into a showplace. Chalk Hill, which Furth ran with his former wife, Peggy Jane, produced award-winning Sauvignon and chardonnay wines. He sold the winery in 2010 and moved to Lake Worth, Fla. He died there May 12 at the age of 84 after a fall in his home.
A memorial Mass will be held at 11 a.m., July 18, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Windsor.
Fredrick Paul Furth was born in Harvey, Ill., in 1934, and graduated from the University of Michigan and from its law school.
He practiced law in New York for a time and then moved to San Francisco, where he worked with former Mayor Joseph L. Alioto on antitrust cases.
Furth was active in politics as well and was the campaign manager for former San Francisco Supervisor Quentin Kopp when Kopp ran for mayor. Kopp was defeated but he and Furth remained good friends.
“This guy was bigger than life,” Kopp said, “and he was really an excellent lawyer.”
Furth also opened his own San Francisco law firm and was one of the best known attorneys in the West.
One of Furth’s most noted court victories was a $172 million class-action judgment he won on behalf of 116,000 Walmart employees who said they had been denied meal and rest breaks.
“I’m a modern-day legal Robin Hood,” he told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat at the time.
Furth loved to live the life of the rich and famous. He drove big, expensive, flashy cars, which he called “Furthmobiles.” He wore white suits, smoked big cigars, and had a full equestrian center and a regulation football field in his Chalk Hill complex. He was an accomplished pilot, and once flew around the world in his jet plane, accompanied only by a Great Dane dog.
On the other hand, he endowed San Francisco’s Sacred Heart primary school with more than $5 million through the Megan Louise Furth Foundation, in honor of his daughter Megan, a writer and equestrian who died in 2003 at the age of 31.
The school later became part of the Mission Dolores Academy in San Francisco.
Furth is survived by his wife, Maryann Polizzi Furth of the family home in Florida; his sisters, Mary Jo Odell of San Anselmo and Jeanne McTighe of Boulder, Colo.; a daughter, Darby Furth Bonomi of San Francisco; a son, Ben Furth of Las Cruces, N.M.; and three grandchildren.