John Bier

1927 - 2018

John Allan Bier

Dr. John Allan Bier died in his sleep on September 28 at age 91 years after several weeks in hospice care. He is survived by his wife Jacqueline, his sister Aline, his children Eric and Beth, his step-children Renee and David, and his grandchildren Jonathan, Jessalyn, Austin, and Emma. John was born to Allan and Marcelle Bier on April 22, 1927. He grew up in San Francisco with his parents and his sister Aline in their family house on Cherry Street.

John graduated from Lowell High School in 1944. He studied for a year in Moscow, Idaho, where he made some lifelong friends. In World War II, he trained at Camp Roberts in California and then was deployed to Paris, France. John graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, where he became an avid fan of the Golden Bears football team. He studied dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania, where he enjoyed the school and the surrounding city of Philadelphia. He practiced dentistry for 50 years on Market Street in San Francisco in the Phelan building. He liked to say that vacation was a great break from work and work was a great break from vacation. He is a past president of the San Francisco Dental Society.

He loved to work with his hands, including helping friends and family with plumbing and electrical projects, and making gifts out of wood. He enjoyed trains and looked for opportunities to ride them, including train trips with his family to Disneyland and across Canada. He was fond of the Anderson Valley and vacationed there almost every summer for years. He liked white water river rafting and often spoke of his trip on the Big Horn River. He enjoyed cruises, including a cruise to Alaska. He organized an annual Thanksgiving trip to row on Stow Lake. He hosted and helped cook an annual holiday breakfast followed by an afternoon buffet attended by many friends and relatives. He liked to find the good things in life and then make them into traditions. We will miss his company, his many stories and jokes, and his homemade blackberry jelly.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation either to Sutter Care at Home, https://www.sutterhealth.org/services/home-health-hospice/hospice or The Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning, http://fromm.usfca.edu/giving.html.

Private services will be held.