Kandace Bender

1954 - 2024

Kandace Bender
09/25/1954 - 10/12/2024
On October 12, 2024, Kandace Ann Bender was surrounded by her loved ones when she lost her years-long battle with cancer. She was 69.
But cancer would not define her.
Born into a family that embodied the pioneer spirit, Kandace first called Cut Bank, Montana, home. She spent her early years in Colorado until her family relocated to Australia, where she grew into a young girl with a global sense of possibility.
She attended St. Peters Lutheran College in Brisbane and returned to the U.S. to graduate summa cum laude from The Pennsylvania State University with a B.A.
After beginning her daily newspaper career as a sports writer at The Bethlehem Globe Times in Pennsylvania, she relocated to The City by the Bay.
Seeing the twinkling lights of the City for the first time while driving across the Golden Gate Bridge on Halloween 1980, Kandace was forever after smitten with San Francisco, dedicating her career to its benefit.
She rose to the post of Political Editor at The San Francisco Examiner and was forever proud of her 1996 Sunday magazine cover story on former Mayor Joe Alioto, one of the last substantial journalistic writings about him.
She served as Press Secretary to Mayor Willie Brown and subsequently as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at San Francisco International Airport for the final 17 years of her career. Shortly after her retirement, she earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree in non-fiction writing at University of San Francisco.
She was a daughter to a mother who encouraged her determination and maternal instincts, a role model to her siblings, a wife to a husband who was inspired by her, a mother to a son who loved, admired and looked up to her, and, perhaps most importantly, a doting "Nono" to two loving grandchildren.
She is survived by her husband of 40 years, John Pachtner; her mother, Jeane Fuller; son, Nathaniel Pachtner (Kasey Gieschen); granddaughters, Marlowe and Piper Pachtner, and Cora Russell; sister, Hollace Bender (Jackson Haring); best friend, Cheryl Wallace; nephew, Remy Haring; step-daughter Danette Pachtner (Jeff Russell), as well as many, very dear cousins.
Her tenacity, strength, courage, and grit; her undeniable impact on the city of San Francisco; her fierce love for her friends and family - and her pride in being a San Franciscan. This is who Kandace was, and this is who we will remember.
Those wishing to honor her memory may contribute to Redwings Horse Sanctuary in Paso Robles, CA, in her memory, as a gesture to her life-long love for farm animals, especially horses.