Piers Joseph Greenhill

June 28, 1934 - March 20, 2021

Sadly, Piers passed away unexpectedly, alone in his San Francisco home. An only child, Piers was born at St. Luke’s in San Francisco to Percy Greenhill and Doris Peto Greenhill. His first eight years the family lived in Sleepy Hollow, Marin County. Wanting Piers to have dual American and Canadian citizenship, Percy moved the family to a farm in Haney, British Columbia, where Piers remained until he graduated from high school. From there he pursued various jobs in Vancouver, then London, and finally, in his mid-twenties, settled permanently in San Francisco where he worked as an accountant. Most of his accounting career was with the San Francisco Chronicle, from which he retired in the 1990s.

Ever on the go, Piers was an avid square dancer, devotee of film, fan of professional ice-skating and tennis, and an ardent world traveler. A member of the San Francisco Film Society since 1987, he was honored in 2014 as a “soldier of cinema” for his volunteer work with the S.F. International Film Festival. It was said of him that “he is just a gem. Someone you want to interact with and you want to see.” Said Piers, “I love film and interacting with people - the festival is a good mix of the two.” Piers was also a member of BRAVO, the San Francisco Ballet Resource and Volunteer Organization, where his claim to fame was backstage chaperone for the youngest performers in various ballet productions, in particular the annual Nutcracker. Also among his many volunteer activities was escorting AIDS patients to the SF Opera.

Piers will be greatly missed by three generations of cousins and legions of friends around the world “a gem” to all whose lives he touched.

Appropriate to his memory, contributions in Piers’ honor may be sent to the SF Film Society (sffilm. org), the SF Ballet (sfballet. org), or KQED (kqed.org).