Maurice Sands

Maurice Sands 1906 - 2006 Maurice "Sandy" Sands died of old age on Sept. 15, 2006, at The Heritage Retirement Home in San Francisco. He happily lived to see his 100th year! He will always be remembered for his incredible sense of humor, his compassion, his selfless caring for others, and as a great father. He had an extremely happy marriage of 67 years to Winona (nee Wenzlick), who also was his partner in his firm, Maurice Sands Interiors. Just after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sandy became the chief of the purchasing division of the City and County of San Francisco and supervisor of the Public Housing Authority in the Bay Area. Sandy was very well known in the Bay Area from the mid 40s through the mid 60s. He was considered one of the 'Big Four' top residential designers, along with architects, Bill Wurster and Gardner Dailey and landscape architect, Tommy Church. Among his non-residential clients were the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley), Stanford Alumni House, Stanford Hospital, Southern Pacific Railway's Vista-Dome cars, the Squaw Valley Olympics (1960), Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., and the Stuart Pharmaceutical Complex. In addition he was the interior design consultant for all of the Bank of America branches during the 50's. He also taught returning World War II veterans interior design at the San Francisco Art Institute in the late 40's and spent 15 years as a lecturer in the home economics department at UC Berkeley. His course was extremely popular due to his wicked sense of humor combined with practical design advice. He even had a brief side career as a guest on Marjorie Trumbell's televised talk/variety show in the early days of KRON TV. He delighted audiences by giving interior decorating advice with his own unique brand of humor. He was a member of the Board of SF MOMA and helped create the Rental Gallery project. Sandy is survived by his three children, Nancy Sands Chandler, Peter and Michael Sands, seven grandchildren, and six great grandchildren. In mid-July of this year, the family had a lively 'celebration of his life' while he was still living so that he could enjoy it too! A private family Thanksgiving and Memorial will be held soon to further reminisce about this wonderful character.