John Bryan

John Maxwell Bryan Died peacefully at home on March 31, 2012. Born on February 22, 1925, he was a resident of Piedmont his entire life. He was the older son of Kathryn Maxwell and Carleton Felton Bryan. His brother, Carleton, Jr. predeceased him. John was a fourth generation Californian. In 1952, he married Florence Atherton Eyre. This union produced four daughters, Kathryn Bryan Hampton (Gregory), Suzanne Eyre Bryan, Amanda Atherton Bryan and Anne de Lenclos Bryan. He also left four grandchildren: John Maxwell Bryan Hampton, Atherton Eyre Hampton, Cary Betts Hampton and Megan Amanda Atherton Bryan. John attended Piedmont schools, Webb School in Claremont and Stanford where he entered the V-12 Program. The Navy sent him to USC and Harvard Business School and then on to the Pacific where he served as a Supply Officer on a Troop Transport. He returned, graduated from Stanford and worked for Maxwell Hardware Company, founded by his great grandfather in 1886, ultimately becoming CEO with six stores in the East Bay. After eventually liquidating the family business, he went to work for Blyth and Company in San Francisco and later formed a partnership with his good friend, William C. Edwards, to pursue his investments full-time. John was a director of many organizations including Trust Company of the West, Hibernia Bank, Mechanics Bank and Sugar Bowl Corporation. He was a general partner and for a few years, the major owner of Freemark Abbey Winery. In the public service area, he was a long-time director and past chairman of the California State Automobile Association, director and trustee of the Alpine Winter Foundation (which, in addition to supporting many worthy causes in the Tahoe-Donner area, provided the seed grant for the Tahoe Rim Trail Fund), trustee and treasurer of Head-Royce School, trustee of the Webb Schools, director of the Golden Gate Fields Foundation and the United Crusade - San Francisco. And he was a long-time member of the Claremont Country Club, the Pacific-Union Club, the Bohemian Club, the French Club and the Glenbrook Club. Always on the go, John and Flo and their four daughters traveled extensively. He loved sailing at Lake Tahoe, skiing at Sugar Bowl, riding in the Napa Valley, the opera, musicals, the theater, good wine, good food, his daily swim and, especially, his many dear friends. Practicality and common sense were John's watchwords. He engaged life with enthusiasm, squeezing from it every drop of excitement, satisfaction and joy (as anyone who ever rode up a chairlift with or sat next to him at a dinner party knows well). New ideas, new relationships and new interests were his passion. He was not a spectator. He was, what Teddy Roosevelt called, "...the man who is actually in the arena, ...who strives valiantly, ...who spends himself for a worthy cause; ...so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." His big shoes (size 15) will never be filled. Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the San Francisco Opera.