Wilma “Billie” Zinser
Feb 13, 1947 - Jan 5, 2017
Wilma Jean Zinser, 69, who divided her time between homes in Oakland, CA, and Carmel, CA, died at home in Oakland on January 5, 2017, with her husband, Dr. Robert Herrick, at her side.
Wilma, known to friends and family as Billie, was born February 13, 1947, in Fall River, MA, to Wilmer Joseph Zinser and Helen Marie (Harrison) Zinser. She attended Dominican Academy from 1951 to 1959, when her family moved to Norwich, CT. After high school, she attended Johnson and Wales University in Providence, RI, graduating with a business degree.
In July 1968, Billie visited friends in the San Francisco Bay Area. She enjoyed her stay so much that she called her mother in Connecticut and said, “Send my clothes—I’m staying.” So stay she did, collecting a degree in Marine Biology from UC Berkeley and at the same time working in a medical office as an accountant and administrator. After graduating, she took a job at Merck Pharmaceuticals, where she worked her way up to the position of Executive Pharmaceutical Representative.
In 1974 she met Dr. Robert Herrick, her husband-tobe. They did not rush into marriage, waiting some 14 years before the day they drove over the bridge to San Francisco City Hall to be legally wed. They were formally married for 27 years.
In 1976 Billie was diagnosed with late-onset type I Diabetes. In the mid1980s she went into kidney failure and needed dialysis. Ultimately she came under the care of the transplant service at UC San Francisco, where she received one of UCSF’s first kidney-pancreas transplants.
Following a difficult two-year recovery period, Billie, who had always been an optimistic and energetic person, showed what she was really made of by quickly creating for herself a rich and busy life. Despite suffering periodic health setbacks, she retained her sense of adventure, and amazed friends and family by traveling all over the world, visiting all five continents, with Robert and members of their large circle of friends.
In the 1990’s Billie fell in love with Scottish Deerhounds after reading the book Out of Africa, and over the years that followed she and Robert have owned five of the lovable giant canines. Billie was on the board of the Northern California Scottish Deerhound Club, and was membership secretary of the Scottish Deerhound Club of America. Often, at home her deerhound would startle dinner guests by gliding silently up to the table and resting his or her large head companionably on the table.
After Billie and Robert bought a house in Carmel in 2012, Billie spent much of her time there, sometimes relaxing alone and sometimes with friends. It gave her great joy to take her deerhound to Carmel beach and walk the mile-long beach with her dog and loving friends.
During this period, she also took drawing and painting classes, building on courses she had taken previously in Oakland. Her skills grew, and she began to excel as an artist, despite being partially blind from her many years of diabetes.
After years of taking immune-suppressing drugs so her body would not reject her transplanted organs, Billie was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in October 2016.
Although she was already seriously ill, her fiercely independent nature did not allow her to give in, and she had a final warm and merry Christmas with her family. In the days that followed; however, the cancer finally overtook her, and she passed away January 5, 2017.
She is survived by her husband, Dr. Robert Herrick of Oakland; her stepdaughter, Wendy Herrick of Portland, OR; her brother, Mike Zinser and her sister-in-law, Elaine Merrill, both of Pleasanton, California—and of course, her beloved deerhound, Katie.
Cremation will take place at the Nautilus Society in Oakland, CA, and two memorial gatherings, one in Oakland and one in Carmel, will be scheduled for the future.