Ann Garfield

February 21, 1935 - November 04, 2020

Our beloved aunt Ann Garfield was smart, talented, creative, energetic, fun, and funny. She was born in Berkeley in 1935 and grew up in Piedmont, graduated from Piedmont High in 1953 and went to Pomona College. Ann took time off from school to travel through Europe. She was particularly fond of Rome, making lifelong friends and returning many times over the years. She was proud to have purchased her first car, a Lancia, in Italy and have it shipped to San Francisco.

Ann graduated from UC Berkeley and got her teaching credential and MA in Education from San Francisco State. She taught in the San Francisco Unified School District for over 40 years. She began her career as a dedicated and unconventional Special Education Teacher. Most of her students lived in Hunter’s Point. She made frequent home visits to ensure that they got to school every day. She took them on field trips to her father’s ranch, the Lazy G in Santa Rosa and to her sister’s home in Marin County where she taught some of them to swim. Ann became an Elementary and Middle School Counselor and was a School Social Worker when she retired in 1994. After retirement she became a substitute teacher in Marin County in Special Education in Kindergarten through High School.

Ann lived in the City in an apartment in the Haight for several years. In the early ‘60s she bought a houseboat in Sausalito where she lived for almost 50 years. She was an activist who went on strike with the teachers’ union and walked the picket lines with her poodle, Sheri, a stray named after Sheridan School where Ann found her. Ann’s fondness for cats and dogs fueled her lifelong support of numerous animal rescue organizations. She cherished her rescue dogs Sheri, Rainbow, and Lisa and her cats Monty and ET. In her later years, she was an enthusiastic Gray Panther.

Ann had a passion for music, dance, and theater. She took modern dance classes every week for years, performed in Gilbert & Sullivan productions with the Lamplighters in San Francisco, and sang with the College of Marin Emeritus Chorus. She was an avid reader. She had a way with words and a talent for writing thought-provoking poems and parodies. She was known to surprise a friend or relative with a poignant or humorous personalized limerick.

Over the past 10 years, Ann struggled with Parkinson’s Disease, accepting the challenges and limitations with her ever-present positive, upbeat, cheerful attitude, never complaining, always interested in others. When we asked her how she was, her standard answer was “fine, how are you?”.

Ann’s parents were Myrtle and Sidney Garfield. Her relatives include her older sister Jane Levinsohn, her late brother-in-law John Levinsohn, a bunch of first cousins, and her nieces, Nancy Levinsohn and Joanie Levinsohn, who loved her dearly and were by her side the whole way. She will be treasured and forever missed.