Alfred Wilsey -- renowned philanthropist
Monday, January 7, 2002
Top of Form 1Bottom of Form 1
Funeral services will be held Friday for Alfred S. Wilsey, one of the Bay Area's most prominent businessmen and a philanthropist who gave many millions of dollars to San Francisco's arts institutions and schools.
Mr. Wilsey died Friday in San Francisco at the age of 82. The cause of death was respiratory failure.
In San Francisco, over a period of nearly half a century, Mr. Wilsey became known as much for his appearance in the society columns -- he appeared week after week in items written by the late Herb Caen and Pat Steger -- as he was for his generosity to virtually any charity that asked for his help. The money to fund all these projects came from the family's business, which Mr. Wilsey took over at the age of 17, and his California real estate ventures.
Mr. Wilsey was born in San Francisco on Sept. 27, 1919, the son of a dairy farmer and a homemaker. He was raised in San Rafael, where he attended Catholic grammar school. He won a scholarship to St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco, commuting daily from Marin County by train, ferry, bus and foot.
His early instruction by Dominican nuns and the scholarship award were instrumental in forming his values in life and leading to his philanthropic deeds to come, family members said.
Mr. Wilsey attended the University of San Francisco for a year, but left at age 17, when his father died, to take over the family business with his brother. Their mother had died two years earlier.
Mr. Wilsey and his brother, Jack, built the dairy foods company into one of the biggest privately owned businesses in the Bay Area. The Wilsey Bennett Co.,
which Mr. Wilsey sold several years ago, made edible oils, fats, margarine and foil pack butters, as well as institutional and brand-name products.
Four decades ago, Mr. Wilsey also began working in real estate development with a partner, Gerson Bakar. Their residential and commercial projects included San Francisco's Levi Plaza, Northpoint Mall, Westlake apartments, Woodlake apartments, Stanford's Oak Creek apartments and Carmel Plaza in Carmel.
Being a high-profile businessman at times made his personal life high profile as well. Mr. Wilsey was married four times, first to Doris Duisenberg and next to Lorraine Gaviati. His third marriage, to onetime Examiner columnist Pat Montandon, who had been previously married to attorney Melvin ("The King of Torts") Belli, ended in a very public divorce chronicled in great detail in San Francisco's newspapers. He then married Diane "Dede" Dow Traina, whose great-grandfather started Dow Chemical Co. Her ex-husband, John, a steamship company executive, later had a long marriage to author Danielle Steel.
But it was Mr. Wilsey's sense of curiosity, his zeal for adventure and his philanthropy for which friends and family remember him most fondly.
His philanthropy spanned causes great and small. He donated millions to the Fine Arts Museums, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco Opera, Conservatory of Flowers, and St. Ignatius Church and High School, where he helped to build a new library and track and restore lighting of the church towers, among other things.
He played an instrumental role in Clinic Ole in the Napa Valley for migrant workers, and the Food Bank and Delancey Street Cafe in San Francisco.
He served on numerous boards and had given scholarships to students at Immaculate Conception Academy, among other schools, during the past 20 years. He even answered letters that came to his house from people asking him for money to pay for auto repairs or credit card bills.
"He always used to say, 'I didn't choose to be born bright, and because I was, I need to give back for this great opportunity that I've had,' " his widow, Dede Wilsey, said yesterday. "Anyone with a stamp and an envelope, we supported. Between the two of us, we didn't always agree, so we supported them all."
San Francisco's chief of protocol, Charlotte Mailliard Shultz, called Mr. Wilsey a "man of great principle and integrity" who gave to many causes but did so quietly. Nonetheless, she said, he had a great sense of humor and was a fine conversationalist, especially at parties. There were many of those -- Mr. Wilsey and his wife made for one of the brightest couples on the social scene, and their annual Christmas party is one of the season's most coveted invitations.
"If you sat next to him, he drew you out -- he wanted to know about you and what you were doing, and gave you great insights without preaching," Shultz said. "He was great to sit next to."
Mr. Wilsey was also something of an adventurer. He and his wife enjoyed globe-trotting, but he also liked to drive just about anything, from motorcycles to boats to fire engines. At his Rutherford River Ranch Vineyard, he could be spotted driving a World War II surplus Army jeep, painted in his wife's favorite colors, pink and green, with his Jack Russell terrier Melissa at his side.
He also loved to fly airplanes and had his own Hughes helicopter, stored at the hangar and heliport at his home in Napa. On coast-to-coast trips to his mother-in-law's home in Newport, R.I., his wife took commercial jets, while Mr.
Wilsey preferred to fly himself in his helicopter -- with a friend along to navigate the 2 1/2-day trip. He made 13 of these coast-to-coast round trips.
"He loved every moment in that helicopter," Dede Wilsey said. "He told me three days before he died that he expected to be up in the helicopter again."
But Mr. Wilsey's health had failed in recent years. In 1991 he suffered a severe bout of pneumonia. He had a quadruple bypass surgery in 1997, then developed pneumonia last June and had a stroke in August.
He died, quietly, in the family car as his wife was driving him to the hospital on Friday.
Mr. Wilsey is survived by his wife, Dede; two daughters, Susan Smallwood of Waimea, Hawaii, and Wendy Wilsey Magers, of Bend, Ore.; three sons, Michael Wilsey of Atherton, Ladd Wilsey of Ross and Sean Wilsey of New York City; two step-sons, Trevor Traina of San Francisco and Todd Traina of Los Angeles; 12 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
A rosary is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at St. Ignatius Church, 650 Parker Ave., San Francisco. A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Ignatius.
The family requests that memorial contributions be made to St. Ignatius Church, 650 Parker Ave., San Francisco CA 94118, or the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 6th Floor, 233 Post St., San Francisco CA 94108.
This article appeared on page A - 17 of the San Francisco Chronicle
came to US about 1848. First to NY. served in civil War was in battle of Gettysburg.
Obituary - C. O. Sullivan
(Published upon request of the Grand Army of the Republic.)Lived on South 38th Street, Oklahoma City. He came to America with his parents
when he was 8 years of age, lived in the State of New York until the Civil war and then
responded to the call of President Lincoln for volunteers for the preservation of the
Union. He enlisted in Company K, Eighth New York Heavy Artillery, July 21, 1862.
He was in a number of battles, but the most severe of all was Gettysburg.
Mr. Sullivan enlisted as a private, but was mustered out as sergeant June 5, 1865.
After the war he came West and in 1889, with the rush at the opening of Oklahoma
territory, secured a claim two miles southwest of Moore, which he owned at the time of
his death. He resided there until five years ago, when he moved to Oklahoma City.
He was a consistent member of the Roman Catholic church. His cardinal principle was
honesty. His word was his sacred honor and never depreciated. It was always worth
par where he was known and did not need to be under seal with a forfeiture bond
attached.
He was member of Oklahoma City Post, No. 17, G.A.R. The funeral services were
conducted by Father McGuire at the Sacred Heart church, Capitaol Hill, after which
Post No. 17 took charge and conducted the burial service at Fairlawn cemetery, where
he was laid to rest under the flag he fought to save and the one he loved so well.
He leaves a widow and three children: Abner of Oklahoma City, Mattie and Cora
Westinghouse (sic) of Kansas. Both the daughters attended the funeral. (Per his
Obiturary - Oklahoma City newspaper, 1915)
Per Obituary of Anna Sullivan, C.O.'s wife: Mrs. Sullivan came to Oklahoma from
Canada during the opening of the strip in 1889, with her husband, the late C.O.
Sullivan. The homesteaded near Moore and lived there until moving to Kansas 25 years
ago....
Mattie, his daughter, was born in Leadville, CO., so C.O. and Anna obviously did live
in Colorado for a period of time.
Cornelius was buried on 12/21/1915 in Grave 1, on the South 1/2 of Lot 9, Block III,
Catholic portion, Fair Lawn Cemetery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Kathleen Westerhaus Doak remembers going to Oklahoma City with "Grandma Haus"
(Mattie) when Kathy was in second grade (approximately 1956) following surgery to
remove her tonsils. They rode the train to Oklahoma City and stayed with "Aunt
Winnie". She also remembers visiting "Aunt Carrie" which would have been Carrie
Timmons, a sister to Joe Westerhaus. She remembers the house as having numerous
stairs, and that Aunt Winnie had rosaries hanging around the bed posts of her bed.
Winnie gave Kathy a rosary which she still has.
Kathy cannot recall how or where she learned, but believes that Cornelius was born in
County Cork, Ireland. She also believes that both military pictures and family
information about Cornelius may be available in New York City archives.
Per Tom Westerhaus, C.O. worked in the Tabor Mine (the matchless mine) - Foreman
for that mine in Central City to Leadville, Ashcroft, and Aspen. Built a house in Aspen
near the Roaring River.
Looked at C.O.'s discharge papers which read as follows:"Chief's Desk, Eastern, May 15, 1908, Division of U.S. Bureau of Pensions",
"TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN" KNOW YE, That Cornelius O. Sullivan, a
Sergeant of Captain Simon P. Webster's Company, (K,) Eighth Regiment of 26
Artillery, NYS Volunteers who was enrolled on the thirty first day of July, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty two to serve three years or during the war, is hereby
Discharged from the service of the United States, this fifth day of June, 1865, at Baileys
Cross Roads, VA, by reason of Gen Orders so 26, dated Hdqrs A of P May 17,
1865. No objection to his being re-enlisted is known to exist.
Said Cornelius O'Sullivan was born in the State of Ireland , is twenty years of age, five
feet eight inches high, light complexion, blue eyes, dark hair, and by occupation, when
enrolled, a Farmer.Given at Bailey's Cross Roads, Va. this fifth day of June 1865.
/s/____________ J B Baker, Colonel, Commanding the Reg't.
others have death as 12/19/1915
ss has b 2/19/1878
d 1/1970 in OKC
father b in Pa , mother b in NY
Leno L in 1920 census in Grant cty Ok
father Thomas Greenwood b 1836 Ky mother Arabelle b 1841 In.
in 1920 census in Fergus Mt with wife Lillian.
There is a delightful circa 1900 photo of Lillie as "Miss Foster Lumber Company," of Tonkawa, Kay Co., OK (at that time still Indian Territory), on pg. 208 of the May-June 1989 issue of "The Genealogical Helper" magazine. Lillie won first prize for herself and Foster Lumber in the town's contest for the person best dressed to represent their business. The decorations on her dress included a "picket fence" border at the hem, wood shingles, window screen, and there is a wooden pinwheel in the center of her chest. In her hair as curls are shavings of wood and her hat is made of wood and held on with a ribbon! The sign she is holding states, "Foster Lumber Co. Sells Stearnes Pure Paints." Lillie was born 03 Jan 1877 in Rochester, NY to George and Ellen Burne McGuckin. Their parents were Percy and Luana Willis Burne and James(Hugh by another) and Rose McGuckin. After living in Stonington, IL, Gray and Sherman Co., KS and OK, she married Dillard S. Greenwood, 23 Nov 1898 and they had two daughters, Thelma Greenwood Welch and Marion Greenwood Johnson. Lillie married G. L. Shawver on 20 Nov 1915 and had one son, George Lee Shawver, born 02 Sept 1916. Lillie died and is buried in Tonkawa, Kay Co., OK, 27 Sept 1960.
came to US in 1855. although given b in NY is more likely in Canada
gr granddaughter or granddaughter
First Name: Sally Last Name: McCollum Email Add.: salnral@aol.com
Phone: 989-835-2348 Age: b 1940shows in 1880 census in Bay cty Mi with wife and family as James F
have seen b 1841 also
both parents b in Pa
have seen b 1854
George drowned in the local Kawkawlin River at just over 8 years old
also m Mabel Smith 4/24/1909 Midland Mi
also m Sarah A Swift 2/1/1889 Fremont Miin 1930 in Bay cty Mich with a Minnie E, also with her in 1920 census, in 1910 w Mabel
pr dead before 1900
Alvira died in her thirties 4 kids
also seen last name as Upton