Gerry Meister championed healthcare
and pension rights throughout her long career as a
San Francisco teacher and labor
activist. Photo courtesy Denise
LaPointe
Ceremonies were held in April to celebrate the
life of Gerry
Meister, a longtime Noe Valley resident and longtime leader in
the often
extraordinary efforts of San Francisco teachers to win,
secure, and expand
their rights.
Gerry, an active member of Friends of Noe
Valley, Noe Valley
Democratic Club, and other neighborhood groups, lived with her
journalist
husband Dick Meister on 28th Street for a half-century. She
died at 77 on
March 4 after a brief struggle with cancer.
Gerry was most recently, and for nine years,
chair of the
900-member retired division of the local teachers union, the
United Educators
of San Francisco (UESF), and co-chair of the Protect Our
Benefits Committee
(POB), which advocates for retired teachers and retired public
employees
generally.
As a highly committed teachers union activist
and organizer,
Gerry was particularly effective in advocating for the local
Health Service
System (HSS) and insisting that it provide workers the health
care they
required. It was a very difficult task, to which she devoted
most of her time
after retiring in 2001 from the social studies post she had
held with
distinction at Washington High School for nearly 40 years. She
had taught more
than 7,000 students and had generously mentored scores of new
teachers.
Gerry played a major role in passing the ballot
initiative that
defined the HSS as a separate and thus more effective agency
in 2004, and went
on to become a valuable adviser to each HSS director and to
the many retirees
who sought her help.
She also was active in many political
campaigns, such as the
Proposition H campaign in 2002, which increased funding for
San Francisco
schools and libraries and for music and arts programs, and the
Proposition 30
drive that same year, which increased state funding for
education.
Gerry campaigned equally hard against measures
she saw as
harmful, including a San Francisco proposition that would have
greatly
curtailed city employee pensions. One of her strongest efforts
was working to
defeat last year’s California Proposition 32, which would have
stifled the
political voices of workers and their unions throughout the
state.
Gerry Meister, who modestly described her work
as “doing what
needs to be done,” was an exceptionally popular and
influential teacher and leader.
Her death has drawn dozens of messages from students, her
fellow teachers, and
others, praising and thanking her for her life’s work and for
leaving behind an
important legacy. They describe her as concerned about others,
always giving
but never taking, highly competent and knowledgeable, loyal,
tenacious,
dynamic, brilliant, and truly inspirational.
Gerry’s work, conducted with integrity, grace,
warmth, and
compassion, made her a force for truth and justice throughout
her lifetime and
an inspirational guide for those who follow. We are fortunate
she lived among
us.
Memorial contributions may be sent to Protect
Our Benefits
Committee, P.O. Box 320057, San Francisco, CA 94132, or to the
Gerry Meister
Scholarship Fund, UESF Retired Division, 170 Topeka Ave., San
Francisco, CA
94124.
