Colleen Lookingbill Obituary

Colleen Jean Lookingbill

63, of San Francisco, passed away on March 30, 2014. Born in Storm Lake, Iowa, on December 3, 1950, Colleen grew up in Spencer, Iowa and graduated from the University of Iowa with a BA in Communication Arts.

In 1979, Colleen moved to San Francisco with her friends, film noir historian and poet Spencer Selby and painter Biff O'Meara. She was a poet who published two collections: Incognita and a forgetting of. She co-edited EtherDome Press with poet Elizabeth Robinson and curated the North Beach reading series at Canessa Gallery for most of the 90s and again in the 00s. Colleen was employed by Pacific Bell/AT&T for almost three decades. In 1993, she married Jordon Zorker. Colleen was a longtime member of SF Insight meditation group at First Unitarian of San Francisco, as well as several women's spirituality groups.

Colleen is survived by her husband Jordon Zorker, mother Eleanor Wendlandt, brothers David, Dean, Darwin, and Duane Lookingbill, godchildren Ryan and Magdalena Frigo, and a large number of caring relatives and friends.

A celebration of Colleen's life will be held May 17 at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco from 2:30 – 5:30pm in the Chapel Room. The family wishes to thank all of those who cared for Colleen during her illness. Donations may be made to the University of Iowa Libraries.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by San Francisco Chronicle from Apr. 10 to Apr. 13, 2014.

Memories and Condolences
for Colleen Lookingbill

13 Entries

Jordon Zorker

May 10, 2014

We first met at a poetry salon, so close to our current home. Once, before our first date, she ran a great distance to catch me as I was boarding a bus downtown. We walked and held hands at Stow Lake. Our marriage was an elopement at the Napa Valley civic center plaza. I met her at a time when she was transforming her life, and I became a key part of that transformation. The time and resources may never be available to reconstruct her childhood or the full story of her life. In the last five years of her illness, so quietly earning, she attained a rare grace, the refinement of her previous selves. Maybe life itself had filled her with too much hope. The world has changed, hardened, excluded her. But this city is filled with reminders, it has absorbed her. (How we had walked all over the city, finally confined to our neighborhood). Among her favorite last things: the scents of flowers, observations of the moon (always thinking it larger than usual), the buffalo in Golden Gate Park, and sunsets viewed at Ocean Beach. I try to imagine a mixtape of all her favorite music, an impossible project. The tiny figurines she collected to assemble into art boxes and shrines, now they look abandoned, lost in time in their miniature landscape. At the very end, I don't believe she thought of art, music, poetry, or spirituality, all the worldly things that mattered so much to her, the things that had entirely shaped her and given meaning to her life. I think she only wanted to feel loved, connected to others. I can only hope she felt enveloped in love. Love forever.

Suzanne Corona

May 10, 2014

Beloved friend for over 20 years.. you will forever, for ever, be in my heart... Love you so much..

Love, Suzanne

May 10, 2014

Colleen, beautiful Colleen, your spirit will live in my heart forever, infusing it with the strength of your generosity and love of life. Thank you for all you have given. Sally Northcutt

Carmen Mogannam

April 16, 2014

Dearest Colleen - You have a special place in my heart. Your love, compassion, kindness and generosity have left a lasting imprint on my life. I will always remember you with warmth and openness.

Ruth Hograbe

April 14, 2014

Dearest sister of my spouse, I am ever grateful for the privilege of having known you.

Eleanor Wendlandt

April 14, 2014

Colleen,dearest daughter, you will remain in a corner of my heart forever. Your Mom.

Maxine Chernoff

April 14, 2014

Colleen: Your words remain, your spirit remains, your kindness too.

April 14, 2014

Remembering Colleen, generous, beautiful, tactful, loving . . . enlightened being lives in and around us.

Jane Perry

April 13, 2014

Your words, my dear: Invitation to dream while the cloud is on us, a blossom without reality or meaning. Try to reconstruct my face a framework of drum beats, tears and clinging. My body swimming and flying, sound of rainfall middle eye -- new world, unfurled, arranged, dissolved, becoming open for the first time. No one is surprised smell of sandalwood and tobacco through labyrinth of confidences, a silent intermission absorbs convergent liveliness. (from Interregnum, 26, 2007). I love you so much.

David Potter

April 13, 2014

Miss you Sis

Merle Bachman

April 13, 2014

Colleen-y, I feel your presence with me. You are in my heart. At least I can talk to you, that way. I can imagine what you might say. I understand you had to go. But we all miss you so much.... You are/were someone who truly understood (grammar is incapacitated) how to live. Your poetics and spirituality gave your very way of being in the world a kind of aesthetics. How beautiful you are/were; how generous; how funny; and how willing to tell it like it is. As Kevin Killian said, a bientot. You got there first. It will be a pretty classy place by the time we join you.... Love, Merle

Kevin Killian

April 13, 2014

Colleen dear, you were so loved and adored. We will just pretend that this sickness and death thing never happened, and keep scouring the crowds at readings and parties looking for your beautiful face. I hope that's OK; and one day you will be there. A bientot! With love from Kevin...

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