Dede Steinfeld Obituary

Dede Steinfeld
April 7, 1954 - March 8, 2022
Dede Susan Steinfeld died suddenly on March 8, 2022, to the great shock and sorrow of her husband, family, and friends. She was 67 years old.
Dede was a second generation native San Franciscan, raised by her mother Florence in the Sunset district, where she attended public schools and made life-long friends. She graduated from Lowell, where she was an active member of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, a youth service organization, and another source of life-long friends.
Dede graduated from college at S.F. State, received an MBA from Pepperdine, and a JD from USF. During her business career she worked primarily for Union Bank in San Francisco. She retired after practicing law as a plaintiffs' personal injury and employment litigator.
Dede was an only child, but met her "sister," Debbie Hailpern of Denver, when she started college at Arizona State. She visited Debbie frequently and gathered another group of friends in Colorado. Dede met her husband Paul Kenney when she interned as a law student at the California Court of Appeal, where he worked as a staff attorney. They were married for 23 years and lived together for almost 30.
Dede loved nothing more than traveling and entertaining. As for travel, she and Paul got a late start in life but valued all the more their trips to Europe, Asia, and South America. They traveled every year for almost 20 years to Puerto Vallarta, which became like a second home.
As for entertaining, Dede was the consummate hostess, staging Passover dinners for her extended family, and parties big and small for friends, everything prepared to perfection. But her mission to entertain extended beyond special occasions, to brighten the day of everyone she met -- she would try to make you laugh in the grocery store checkout aisle if she thought she could. If you met her only briefly you knew who she was, always present and genuine. She had a big personality and a big heart.
She is survived by her husband Paul, her cousins Susan Cossman, Barry Cossman, Steve Cossman and Leslie Vorperian, and her aunt Toby Cossman.
We will gather in Dede's honor when the time is right.

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

Published by San Francisco Chronicle on May 12, 2022.

Memories and Condolences
for Dede Steinfeld

7 Entries

Glen Teshima

June 10, 2025

Dear Paul
Came across this while trying to contact you.
Dede sounds like a wonderful person. I´m glad you had her in your life. My deepest condolences.
Your old old friend
Glen

Levon and Kathleen Sagatelyan

March 21, 2024

May the Creator of us all Illuminate Dede's beautiful eternal soul. Very saddened to hear of Dede's untimely passing. Our memories of Dede are filled with joy, warmth, laughter, great food, amazing hosting of dinner parties by the classiest hostess of all time. Love you then, now and always Dede. Levon and Kathleen

Julie Beyer-Molnar

October 8, 2022

Dede, my heart is broken. We were best friends since we were 8, lived around the corner from each other in San Francisco. We kept in touch through the years, always on our birthdays. My thoughts are with Paul & all the family.
Love, Julie

Lynne Martinez

September 21, 2022

Dear Paul. Our deepest condolences.

Though I didn't know Dede long (7 years), we met due to a place we both loved dearly --- Puerto Vallarta, via the forum and our common experiences down in Paradise.

She and I became fast friends and emailed, talked for over an hour at times and WhatsApp'ed regularly. COVID got in the way of our extended friendship, getting together with both of you in San Francisco and Puerto Vallarta.

Steve enjoyed sharing high school stories and memories growing up in the same area.

We had such good times together --- even getting together at the Cliff House, before it was no more.

Our hearts go out to you. Way too young to go, my friend Dede.

love, Lynne and Steve

steven B Aveson

May 26, 2022

I'll never forget the first time I met Dede.

I'd brought my new sweetheart Karen to San Francisco and arranged for her to meet Paul and Dede.

Karen's a somewhat reserved New England girl. I was eager for Paul and Dede to like her and for her to like them. There was a kind of unintended "Pass Muster" energy that made Karen somewhat anxious.

Dede took care of that immediately.

We met over lunch and the laughter and storytelling that took place didn't stop. Along the way, thanks to Dede we discovered that she and Paul shared family connections to the very Massachusetts town where Karen had been teaching for 3 decades. In fact Paul's father retained Hall of Fame Track credentials on the wall of the High School Gymnasium!

Dede helped make our big world smaller by connecting the dots of friendship and even extended family and I'll always cherish that gift.

Present. Genuine. Big Personality. Big Heart. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And one thing more, each time we parted I always felt Bigger myself for the life giving, love sharing, Gift of her presence. Amen. Peace.

Paul Taniguchi

May 25, 2022

So very sorry to learn of Dede's passing. She was my classmate from Kindergarten thru 12th grade. I remember her as a bright, cheerful person and regret I lost contact with her. My deepest condolences to her loved ones.

Donald Waits

May 16, 2022

Oh My God....one of my dearest school friends at Lowell. Her running mate in that time was Diane Mirani (spelling), and even though she only lived a short walk away, along the lake, she drove to school in her Mustang convertible. :-) I remember she lived with her mother (a glamorous woman) and grandmother. A cheerful, fun loving personality, larger than life, even as a teen. I saw her last at a reunion, probably our ten year, but not since. My twin brother and I will always remember her. You, her loved ones, have my deepest condolences.

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