Warren Peter Lubich

September 23, 1934 - February 8, 2023

Warren was “ready to go” following a six-year medical odyssey. A second-generation native San Franciscan, he grew-up in the CrockerAmazon neighborhood, attending Guadalupe Elementary School and James Denman Middle School. His formal music education, which included classical piano and pop arranging and harmony, began at age seven. He attended Abraham Lincoln High School (1952) and received his bachelor’s in biology from the University of San Francisco (1957). Childhood visits to San Francisco’s movie palaces fostered a dream of someday playing the theatre pipe organ. He realized that dream in 1966 on the Wurlitzer of San Francisco’s Avenue Theatre, where he entertained with music of the 1920’s and 1930’s, and community sing-a-longs, until 1984. He played at the Marin Pizza Pub from 1971 to 1978, and at the Serramonte and Redwood City locations of Pizza and Pipes from 1978 to 2001. He joined the organ staff at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland and the Castro Theatre in San Francisco in 1993 and 2000, respectively. Warren played concerts and silent movie programs throughout California and across the country, and between 1980 and 2003, he performed twenty-seven concerts in England, Australia, and New Zealand. Warren recorded four albums during his music career and was a long serving volunteer with the Northern California Chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society. Warren’s musical talents weren’t confined to the theatre pipe organ; he also played piano, calliope, and accordion, performing with the Red Garter Band – including at 49er football games and in civic parades – and at the Gold Dust Lounge among other venues. Music aside, he enjoyed a 36-year career as a research scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, working in the fields of osteoporosis and hyper/hypo parathyroidism in the Department of Medicine and brain tumor research in the Department of Neurosurgery. He retired from the University in 1994, having co-authored seventeen papers. Warren enjoyed his hobbies of vintage automobiles – Packards and Lincolns – and gardening long before his retirement. He was active with Northern California Packards and the Lincoln & Continental Owners Club. He cultivated orchids and dahlias – the official flower of San Francisco – and volunteered with the Dahlia Society in Golden Gate Park and with Filoli in Woodside. He joined the Olympic Club in 1959 and the Bohemian Club in 1999 and developed a penchant for international travel later in life. Warren is survived by his daughter, Nancy McKinney, and son-in-law, Greg McKinney, of San Francisco, and his brother, Dwight Lubich, sister-in-law, Elaine Lubich, and nephew, Derek Lubich, of Los Altos. A memorial mass will be said on Friday, March 3rd at 11am at St. Ignatius Church on the campus of the University of San Francisco. Contributions may be made to the USF Class of 1957 Endowed Scholarship, and can be sent to USF Development Services, 2130 Fulton St., SF, CA 94117-1080. “San Francisco, welcome me home again, I’m coming home to go roaming no more.”