Paul Robert Singer

Paul Robert Singer

Died on Saturday, September 28, 2013 after several long bouts against 3 or 4 cancers - winning most of them except the last. He was 82.

He was born in Boston January 28, 1931 to Ethel and Bernard Singer. He graduated from Boston Public Latin School, Hebrew Teachers College and Northeastern University. He went on to Northwestern University where he received a PhD in Psychology and met his wife Sandra Joy Sugarman. They had two daughters, Annie and Ruthie.

In Chicago he had a private practice and taught in the Psychiatry Department at the University of Illinois Medical School. Following one of the coldest winters in Chicago history, they moved to San Anselmo and began their California life.

Sadly Sandra died in 1982 and Paul moved to San Francisco where he worked for the California Department of Corrections until his retirement. He married Diana Joy Cohen in 1987 and together they began a life of travel, theatre, ballet. He loved the Great American Songbook and 19th century novels - especially "Middlemarch" which he read at least once a year. He loved movies. They were his refuge and his cathedral. He remembered plot lines, and the names of actors and directors of any movie he ever saw and he saw them all. He carried a camera wherever he went. Enthusiastic and full of opinions always delivered with wit and wisdom. If you met Paul Singer you never forgot him. He is survived by his wife Diana, his two daughters Annie and Ruthie; step children Julie Cohen-Wooden and Joshua Cohen and his adored grandchildren Justin Verducci and Alexandra Singer. He will be terribly missed.

Graveside services will be held Tuesday, October 1, 2013 at 1:00 PM at Salem Memorial Park, 1171 El Camino Real, Colma. In lieu of flowers, donations in his honor can be made to: San Francisco Ballet, Yosemite National Park or any progressive political social organization of your choice.