Linda Breeden

Linda Breeden died peacefully on December 4th at her home in Piedmont. Linda was raised and attended high school in Phoenix, Arizona, where she was a state champion swimmer. After attending Stanford University, she graduated from the University of California Hastings College of the Law with honors in 1969.

Linda worked for several years for the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. Her work focused on Western and environmental issues, and she also performed early research on impeachment procedures during the Nixon administration. On returning to the West Coast, she pursued her passion for the preservation of free and public access to the coastline and surrounding waterways, first with the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and later with the California Coastal Commission. While there, she was part of the legal team that fought the Reagan Administration to prevent further drilling for oil off the California coast. She also worked on efforts to improve public access in Sea Ranch, preserve wetlands in Bolsa Chica, and protect agricultural preserves in San Diego County. Linda and her husband, Jim, settled in Piedmont in 1976. Linda was an avid seamstress, music lover, and a cinephile who enjoyed with equal pleasure fine films, English mystery shows, and Warriors basketball. She was also a lifelong learner who read deeply on an eclectic range of topics; her family fondly remembers enjoying her insights during their lively dinnertime conversations.

Linda lived with metastatic breast cancer for a number of years. During her illness, she was very grateful for the excellent care she received from the doctors, nurses, and hospice workers of the Oncology Clinic at Oakland Kaiser. Linda will be sorely missed by her husband and their daughters Ellen of Chicago and Katherine of Pasadena.