Abraham VIRDEH

Lawyer, Father, Husband and general Renaissance Man, Abraham Virdeh died at his home in Northern Santa Rosa's Wikiup neighborhood on March 28, 2012 at the age of 81. He was born August 3, 1930 on the shores of a tributary of the Tigris river near the city of Kermanshaw in Western Iran to Assyrian-Armenian parents. In his youth he became an accomplished boxer and student and earned a scholarship to study in the United States. After immigrating to the U.S., he earned degrees in Environmental Health and Safety from UC Berkeley and UCSF and worked for a number of years as a health inspector for San Francisco and Marin counties. During this time Abe met and married Mary Esther Gresco. He then attended Lincoln Law School in San Francisco and earned his J.D. degree while also serving as the editor of the Lincoln Law Review. He went on to become an accomplished litigator, founding the firm of Virdeh and Virdeh in 1973. During his long career, he made significant case law in the areas of Personal Injury and Worker's Compensation law and changed the lives of many of his clients significantly for the better. With Mary, he fathered two children to whom he taught the value of education, fairness, humor, and a love of the outdoors. He loved and felt most at home in the mountains. He was also a passionate supporter of his alma mater, UC Berkeley, regularly attending Cal sporting events and the Lair of the Bear Camp Blue alumni camp. He will be lovingly remembered, and his spirit continues to live in his wife Mary, his children Celeste Decker of Rohnert Park and Cyrus Virdeh of Redwood City, and the rest of his extended family. A Celebration of Life service will be Friday, April 20 at 3:30 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts Carston Cabaret room in Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa Mortuary Eggen & Lance Chapel 707-542-3747.