William Bradfield "Bill" Mayer

Native son of San Francisco; lover of fishing, the Forty-Niners, the Giants, the Cal Bears; Bay Area banker; and devoted husband and father.

Bill Mayer passed away at home on January 24, 2026. He was 89 years old.

Bill was born in San Francisco on May 12, 1936, to Harry and Edith Mayer. He is survived by his sons, Matthew and Patrick, and their spouses, Jana and Liza. He is also survived by his three beautiful granddaughters: Peyton, Chelsea, and Leah. Bill spent his early years in San Francisco's Marina District on Bay Street…riding cable cars, fishing from the pier, and soaking up the city he loved. His family later moved to San Mateo, where he attended Borel and Serra High School and formed lifelong friendships with David Kohnke and John Buschini.

From there, Bill went on to the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in Business and graduated in 1958. He later earned a Masters in business from Rutgers University. He became a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity and loved telling stories from those years…especially about fellow members Joe Kapp, Curtis Iaukea, Alan Hitchcock and the older fraternity brothers who had started Cal later in life through the VA program. Bill learned early the burden of being a Cal Bears fan, but he persevered and remained loyal to the Golden Bears to the very end. It was during his senior year at Cal that Bill met his future wife and the love of his life, Patricia Flatland. They married in 1960 and stayed together until Patricia passed in 2018.

Following graduation, Bill joined the Navy and served in the Pacific as an officer aboard the ammunition ship Mt. Baker. Always up for a good story, Bill loved to recount the time he authorized a barbecue on the stern of the ship while docked in San Francisco. Other ships saw the smoke and assumed the ammunition ship was about to explode, promptly high-tailing it out to sea-one boat going so fast it blew out its engine beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. If you knew Bill, you knew he loved a good "situation."

After his service, Bill returned to the Bay Area and took his first job at a Ford dealership. He later joined Wells Fargo Bank in Los Gatos, eventually earning a promotion to the San Francisco headquarters on California Street. That move brought the family to San Mateo Park, where Bill spent most of his life raising his family. He remained in banking for the rest of his career, with later stints at Toronto-Dominion Bank, San Mateo County National Bank and Mid-Peninsula Bank in San Mateo.

Bill loved fishing and often raved about opening-day fishing trips to Mt. Shasta with John Buschini and Stan Hicks. He spent countless hours on the water-fishing Raccoon Strait near Angel Island, Rio Vista, and Lake Tahoe. His favorite vacation spot was his summer home in Plumas Pines/Mohawk. He and Patricia spent half the year there with friends and family.

Later in life, Bill and Patricia moved to Hillsborough, where they enjoyed traveling the world and the occasional visit to the Peninsula Country Club, where they were members. Later they settled in Granite Bay and Roseville to be near Matthew and his family. He benefited from the outstanding caregiving of Rochelle Murti.

Bill will be remembered for many things: his deep love for his family, his unmistakable voice, his sense of humor, his tireless storytelling, his love of Mohawk, his passion for music, and his self-deprecating wit.

A celebration of life will be held near San Mateo in the near future.