Mardi Kildebeck

1945 - 2019

Mardi Coyle Kildebeck

September 25, 1945 - November 11, 2019

Mardi Coyle Kildebeck, a Bay Area resident for 50 years and devoted supporter of progressive non-profit organizations, died on November 11, 2019. She was 74.
For the past 20 years Mardi directed the work of the Mary Wohlford Foundation, distributing over $1 million a year to organizations focused on reproductive health, education and social justice. She took a particular interest in learning about smaller organizations operating at a local level, where a streamlined process for dispensing grants could have a significant and immediate impact. Oakland-based ACCESS Women's Health Justice praised Mardi as a "model funder" and "dream donor" when presenting Mardi and the Mary Wohlford Foundation with an Access to Justice Award in 2013.
Mardi's generosity of spirit was equally strong, evident in the time and interest she gave to friends and family. She sought out updates on loved-ones' lives and listened with undivided attention, responding with either quick dry humor or a note of optimistic celebration – frequently exclaiming "What fun!" in response to good news. Mardi brought a blend of enthusiasm and pragmatism to any situation, creating a positive energy that lifted those around her.
Born Margaretta Cowenhoven Coyle, Mardi grew up alongside her sister and two male cousins in Princeton, New Jersey, across the street from the university campus that served as a vast set for their semi-scripted adventure mysteries starring "the Night Riders". On occasion she was enlisted to help her mother Mary with the family business, the weekly Town Topics newspaper co-founded by her father, Dan D. Coyle, with her uncle.
Upon completing studies at Goucher College in Maryland in 1967, Mardi married Tom Kildebeck, whose service first as a naval aviator and then in corporate law took them through several U.S. towns (including coastal Montara, CA) and to Indonesia for two years where Mardi taught English to emerging middle class professionals in Jakarta. By the early 1980s she divorced and settled in a downtown San Francisco apartment with a large view of the Bay, and began a 34-year career as a bookkeeper, tax preparer and office manager for a local CPA.
Mardi's active involvement in social, and by extension, political causes became a dedicated focus when she assumed the role of managing trustee of the newly created Mary Wohlford Foundation. Conceived in 1999 with her friend Mary Wolford as a collaborative effort to support reproductive rights, the Foundation came under Mardi's primary stewardship after Mary died that year. One of the first initiatives of the Foundation was the Wohlford Family Clinic, created in 2001 within a family resource center in the Potrero Hill area and operated in partnership with California-based affiliates of Planned Parenthood.
Mardi brought steadfast resolve and commitment to her defense of women's right to reproductive health, unintimidated by the political noise that can shadow the cause, and confident in a no-nonsense decision-making approach that heightened the Foundation's effectiveness. A contemporary in the successful 2018 campaign to find a new home for the UCSF's youth-friendly New Generation Health Center recalled Mardi's attitude as one of an old-school rabble-rousing feminist, either undeterred by, or unimpressed with, the bureaucratic challenges they faced.
Mardi was a strong advocate for her local neighborhood as well, most notably as treasurer of Friends of the Golden Gateway (FOGG), an organization founded in 2003 to protect what is now the Bay Club at the Gateway, and more generally ensure sensible property development in the area. Mardi was a key leader in mobilizing public support for a successful ballot initiative in 2013 opposing the development at 8 Washington Street of a residential tower that would exceed the city's waterfront height limit for new buildings and imperil the future of the tennis and swim club. She was also a core proponent of the privately-funded playground built nearby, on land freed by the removal of the Embarcadero freeway access ramps. In acknowledgement of Mardi's contributions to the community, the city's Board of Supervisors adjourned their December 10 meeting with a motion to memorialize appreciation of her "many fine qualities of heart and mind."
Mardi's choice of San Francisco as her adopted home set in motion a migratory pull on her extended family's younger generation over the years, and she hosted a succession of her sisters' and cousins' children as they found their way West. Most recently, her sister Georgie moved from Maryland in 2017 to a neighboring building on the edge of the financial district, and joined Mardi, now retired, in a steady diet of civic debate, cultural events, and loyal patronage of some of the city's most established restaurants.
Mardi is survived by her sister, Georgianna Coyle Evans of San Francisco, her nephew Michael Mundy and his wife Megan of Rochester, NY; nephew Patrick Mundy of Virginia Beach, VA; and her niece Molly Mundy Jardiniano and husband Johnson of San Francisco, and grandnieces Caitlin Mundy, Tara Mundy, Jessica Jardiniano and Reese Jardiniano.
A celebration of Mardi will be held this Saturday, January 11 at 4:00 pm at the Metropolitan Club, at 640 Sutter Street in San Francisco. Any and all friends of Mardi are welcome to join the party.