Anthony (Tony) Damato

Anthony (Tony) Damato passed away peacefully on Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022 with his loving children by his side.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Tony spent his youth in North Beach. He took great pride in his Italian heritage and often spoke of his father, a fisherman from Porticello, Sicily. He graduated from Galileo High School and was later drafted into the US Army. He was proud to be one of the first groups of men sent to Vietnam in 1961. After returning home to San Francisco, he began his career in the insurance industry, which spanned over 40 years. He worked his way up, starting as a clerk at Maurice A. Gale Insurance, eventually forming his own company, Damato and Gale Insurance Brokers in the 1980s. Later in life, he worked as a risk manager for Thoits Insurance and The Flea Market in San Jose.

Tony adored his family and cherished time spent with his grandchildren, especially on their annual summer vacations to Napa or Maui. Tony’s favorite past time was socializing with his closest friends and going to the Olympic Club for a workout and a post-work cocktail. He was also a lifelong active member of the Catholic community. Tony was a devoted husband to Sharon, the love of his life, for 44 years until her passing in 2008. He was a wonderful father to Nicole (Bob) McSweeney and Anthony (Kathy) Damato and a loving grandfather to Nicholas, Mia, Ryan and John. Also dear to his heart were his parents, Nicola and Minnie Damato, and siblings Nick (Marie), Joe (Louise), Lawrence (Josephine), Jussie (Mario) and Dan (Ann) and sister-in-law Arlene Kansora. He had many dear cousins, nieces, nephews and cherished friends whose lives he touched, including his best friend from his childhood in North Beach, Luciano Turchino.

We would like to thank Maliana (Nana) Heimuli and her many caregivers for taking such good care of Tony over the past seven years. We are eternally grateful for your kindness and compassion.

A Funeral Mass will be held on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 at Sts. Peter and Paul Church, 666 Filbert Street, San Francisco at 10:30 am. Burial to follow at Holy Cross Cemetery, 1500 Mission Rd, Colma, CA.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Little Sisters of the Poor or a charity of your choice.

James Dines, “The Original Goldbug,” passed away peacefully at his home in California on 12 April 2022. Editor, Financial Analyst, author, and precious metalsmining industry expert, Mr Dines was known for his willingness and courage to contradict the prevailing conventional sentiment of the financial community in formulating his predictions and forecasts, almost always to the benefit of subscribers to his premier publication The Dines Letter (TDL). Continuously published since its start on Wall Street in 1960, TDL is the longest surviving newsletter of its kind.

Mr Dines was first recognized for his prescient call in 1961 that the price of gold, then fixed by the US government, would rise much higher than anyone then could imagine, and was validated when the price rose to as high as $850 in January 1980. When Mr Dines refused to retract his original call as requested by his then employer brokerage AM Kidder, he was fired, leading him on his journey to begin publishing The Dines Letter on his own, and it became his lifework – he was still publishing at the time of his death. Mr Dines was a frequent lecturer on investment strategies and in his television and radio appearances he freely conveyed his ideas on current events and their impacts on capital markets. His Annual Forecast Issue of TDL was eagerly awaited by his subscribers for his predictions and prognostications for the ensuing investment cycle.

Not restricted to golds, he made many brilliant calls during his career including the rise of the Internet, Uranium, Rare Earths, Palladium and that China would dominate the 21st Century, predicted after his visit there in 1976. More about his amazing career can be found in his full biography at https://dinesletter.com/ bio.html. His gratification was always most profound in knowing he had helped enhance the financial lives of his subscribers, many of whom have continued to subscribe through multiple generations.

Mr Dines was generous enough to share his philosophy for a fulfilling life, first in his Mass Psychology book and later in his Secrets of High States book, which became the hallmark of his storied career. He guided many who had the pleasure of knowing him or were students of his work not only to be better investors but to lead happier, more successful lives. Mr Dines trailblazed the field of Technical Analysis in investing, writing the first textbook on the subject. In his pursuit of honest currencies, as one of the founders of the Hard Money Movement, he wrote The Invisible Crash, published in 1976, and Goldbug!, in 2009; both books remain especially relevant even today. Mr Dines was born in New York City, was a graduate of Oberlin College and Columbia Law School, served in the US Army in Military Intelligence and throughout his life was a fierce proponent of capitalism.

Services will be held at Cypress Lawn Funeral Home, Tiffany Chapel on Tuesday April 26th, 2022 at 12:00pm. In lieu of sending flowers the family requests that you get yourself properly dressed, grab some excellent reading material, take yourself to lunch and order a nice glass of wine.

Linda Foley passed away peacefully early the morning of November 23, 2021 at age 81. Born in Miles City, Montana, Linda moved with her family to Seattle and ultimately settled in Elgin, Illinois where she attended high school and began cultivating life-long friendships. She moved West after high school to attend Stanford University where she received a bachelor’s degree in biology and began her career at UCSF in San Francisco, where she also lived and spent a lively early adulthood amongst friends. She met and married Jeff Foley and the two moved to Piedmont where they spent almost thirty years of their life raising a family. During this time Linda pursued a master’s degree from UC Berkeley and went on to work for the State of California as a genetic counselor specializing in Tay-Sachs disease. Upon retirement she and Jeff split time between the Willamette Valley and Alameda.

Always active, Linda loved to travel and work in her garden. Well rounded in her varied interests, she could equally recite the history of various kings and queens of England as well as the value of using beneficial nematodes in the garden. Always social and gregarious, she easily assimilated into the social settings of her Alameda community and the Dundee Hills in Oregon. Predeceased by Jeff in 2009, she will be dearly missed by her sons Christopher (Rosy) and Michael (Toni), her grandsons Matthew, Declan and Lucas, her brother Phillip Swanson and his children as well as her wide circle of friends. She will be remembered by the many who knew her as “funny, caring, generous, interesting, interested and so so much laughter especially after a margarita or two!”

A memorial will be held in Carmel Valley, CA on April 30, 2022. Please contact Christopher at cafoley20@ gmail.com for any enquiries.