Longtime leader was at center of arts scene

When he was 12, a mix of precocity and curiosity helped Stephen Goldstine befriend one of the greats of the photography world.

While at Lands End one day in 1949, the aspiring photographer noticed a man taking photos using a light meter like the one his father used.

“They talked, then Stephen ran home and brought my father’s meter back to show him,” recalled Goldstine’s brother, Daniel. “This man was staggered, he couldn’t believe anyone else in the country, some kid, had one of these because he thought his was the first.” That man was acclaimed San Francisco photographer Ansel Adams.

When Goldstine hoped to get a job as Adams’ darkroom assistant, the photographer recommended the teen take summer classes at the San Francisco Art Institute’s newly founded Fine Art Photography Department, where he was a teacher. Goldstine was the youngest student in the program, studying with well-known photographers Imogen Cunningham, Minor White and Edward Weston. These photographers would become mentors, and Goldstine would go on to work as Cunningham’s assistant. Years later he would become the president of SFAI and continue to foster relationships with artists at the

Russian Hill home, formerly Cunningham’s live-work space, that he shared with his wife, Emily Keeler.

“It’s the opposite of the Sartre quote, ‘Hell is other people,’ ” said Keeler, artistic director of the nonprofit San Francisco Arts Education Project. “People were heaven for Stephen. He loved being with interesting, talented individuals with passion and curiosity. It thrilled him to be at the center of them.”

Goldstine died on Nov. 25, at age 86, from pneumonia following a long illness. In his last weeks at the San Francisco

Dawoud Bey

Campus for Jewish Living and UCSF Medical Center, he was surrounded by family and close friends.

In a statement to the Chronicle, former California Gov. Jerry Brown called Goldstine “a wonderful man who loved the arts and loved helping people, particularly struggling artists.” In 1982, Brown appointed Goldstine to the California Arts Council where he would serve as vice chair and chair until 1986. He also served as interim director of Oakland School for the Arts in 2006, again at the request of Brown, who was the mayor of Oakland at the time.

“He was at the center of the San Francisco arts scene. He loved the symphony and could name conductors and first violinists like some people can name baseball players,” wrote Brown. “They don’t make them like Stephen Goldstine anymore.”

Stephen Joseph Goldstine was born in San Francisco on Nov. 16, 1937, to Edgar Goldstine, whose parents had immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine, and Regina Beno, whose family immigrated from Germany. He was the elder child of two.

By age 6, Stephen Goldstine was taking piano classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He later studied French horn with Herman C. Trutner III, the principal horn player at the San Francisco Symphony.

Goldstine graduated from UC Berkeley, where he was a member of the school’s marching band, with a degree in philosophy in 1961, though he continued at the school for doctoral studies in the same subject.

In 1964 he began teaching in the art department at St. Mary’s

Prolific arts administrator Stephen Goldstine, who served the longest tenure as president of San Francisco Art Institute from 1977-86, died on Nov. 25. He was 86.