Jack Halsey Lirio

Jack lived in San Francisco for 30 years, from 1958 to 1989. In 1971, encouraged by some friends in the wine business (Shirley Robbins, Lila Yaeger, Dagmar Sullivan, and some young Mondavi wives) he opened The Jack Lirio Cooking School on Monterey Blvd. in San Francisco. For 15 years, in the time before the prevalence of cable network cooking shows and Internet recipes, Jack taught and enhanced their joy of cooking to many, many students in the Bay Area, including Marin County and the Peninsula.

Jack graduated from Swarthmore College, PA., majoring in French. He and “Jerry”, his lifelong partner since 1953, toured and lived in Europe, absorbing the culture. He later took cooking classes at the Cordon Bleu, where he got a credential. For 8 years, before opening his cooking school, he taught school to pay the bills. All along the way, he and Jerry enjoyed giving little dinner parties, and Jack gave cooking lessons to small groups in the evenings.

The cooking school was closed in 1989, and Jack and “Jerry” (Howard L. March), moved back to Vineland, New Jersey, to care for Jack’s mother, Dorothy Alvord Lirio.

After Jack’s mother died in 1995, Jack and Jerry lived in various places. In 2000, they visited and fell in love with Honolulu, HI, and settled there. Jerry died in 2006 after a partnership with Jack lasting 53 years. Jack continued his routine of healthy living, exercising and cooking for himself. In 2019, he moved into The Arcadia, a senior retirement facility. He died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 94.

Jack is survived by an extended family on “the Mainland”, including that of his sister, Rosalie Lirio Strang of Cedar Rapids, IA. He also leaves in Hawaii his “best buddy”, Richard A. Smith, and in San Francisco, among others, grateful student and friend, Vera J. Poon.