Merla Zellerbach

Merla Zellerbach

1930 – 2014

Native San Franciscan Merla Zellerbach (née Burstein), author, philanthropist, TV personality, former Chronicle columnist and Nob Hill Gazette editor, died December 26, 2014, in the Presidio Terrace home where she lived since 1954. Universally loved and admired, she will be sorely missed.

Daughter of the late Rabbi Elliot M. & Lottie Burstein, Merla was proud that her father was one of the earliest San Franciscans to speak out against racial intolerance and bigotry.

She attended Grant Grammar School, was vice-president of the student body at Lowell High School, and went on to study psychology at Stanford.

After an early marriage to Stephen Zellerbach (now deceased), she began her volunteer career in the mid-50's, when she was voted Queen of the Mardi Gras, a benefit for the Little Jim Club of Children's Hospital.

Popular host, civic leader and charity fashion model, she went on to volunteer for Planned Parenthood and the American Cancer Society. She founded the SF Sponsors, (which supported a different charity each year), and co-chaired the annual Beaux Arts Ball, which benefited the SF Ballet Guild, the SF Conservatory of Music, and others.

In the '60s, Merla served on the boards of the SF Art Institute, Patrons of Art & Music, and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Along with being one of the early founders of Conard House, which helps people self-manage mental illness, she was a trustee of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and a Social Welfare Aide for the American Red Cross.

A year of volunteering for the American Friends Service Committee left her with strong admiration for the peace-loving Quakers.

Merla began her writing career in 1961, when Doubleday published a first novel, Love In A Dark House. A year later, legendary Chronicle editor Scott Newhall hired her to "poke a gentle needle" at San Francisco society in a thrice-weekly column called My Fair City. Wide response to a story on the difficulties of meeting people, led her to found "The Singles Organization," a matchmaking social group that lasted 21 years.

In addition to writing her column, her byline has appeared in such national magazines as Cosmopolitan, Prevention, Readers Digest, and Travel & Leisure. In 1994, she received the Where Magazine International Achievement Award for Best Article Writing.

1963 saw Merla playing a nurse (the only woman in the all-male cast of media professionals) in the stage show, Mr. Roberts. The play had a 3-night, sell-out run at the Geary Theatre, benefiting retired radio performers. She liked to say that was the start and end of her acting career.

From 1965 to 1970, however, she was a regular panelist on the ABC-TV game show OH MY WORD, with fellow panelists June Lockhart, Scott Beach, Paul Speegle, and host Jim Lange.

During that time, a cancer scare resulted in a double mastectomy. Merla spoke about it openly, as well as being a longtime supporter of breast cancer research.

In the early '80s, she wrote and co-authored five self-help medical books, The Type 1 Type 2 Allergy Relief Program, Detox, and three editions of The Allergy Sourcebook, which received the Wellness.Books.com Reviewer's Choice award. Then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein recognized her literary and civic contributions, and proclaimed Nov. 2, 1983, as Merla Zellerbach Day in San Francisco.

After 23 years, Merla left the Chronicle in 1985 to sign a 4-book contract with Ballantine, and write a series of articles for Town & Country magazine. Her sixth novel, Rittenhouse Square (Random House) was recommended by the New York Times.

In 1996, she became editor of the Nob Hill Gazette, where she penned the popular "Let's Dish" column for much of her 12-year stint.

During her 50 years as a journalist, she interviewed such personalities as Shirley Temple Black, Yves St. Laurent, Andy Warhol, Dianne Feinstein, Bob Hope, Hugh Hefner, Bennett Cerf, Joe Montana, and Helen Gurley Brown.

Merla's 19 published books include 5 nonfiction medical books, 8 novels, and 6 mysteries. Her books have been published in 7 languages, and her accomplishments were recognized when Friends of the SF Public Library named her a "San Francisco Literary Laureate."

In 2007, after watching her father's prolonged suffering before he died, she joined the board of Compassion & Choices, a national organization that supports end-of-life options. Compassion & Choices later honored her with the Hugh Gallagher Award "with great appreciation for her courage and dedication to choice and human liberty at the end of life." She maintained a leadership role in the cause as long as she lived.

Firefall Media published her seventh novel, Secrets in Time, in 2008. This led to Mystery of the Mermaid, the first of a series featuring San Francisco amateur sleuth Hallie Marsh. The Missing Mother; Love to Die For, Dying To Dance, The A-List Murders and 21 Huntington Court all followed.

Four years after Merla lost her second husband, CBS commentator Fred Goerner, author of the best-selling book, The Search for Amelia Earhart, she married former corporate VP/Treasurer of Crown Zellerbach and longtime Civil Service and Library Commissioner Lee Munson at the home of close friends Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Richard Blum.

In 2012, the Northern California Chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation named her their "2012 Champion of Hope – Community Leader" at their annual dinner.

Two years later, the Junior League honored Merla at the annual "Women At The Center Honors (WATCH)," for "women who have made an extraordinary impact on the Bay Area in terms of volunteerism and philanthropy" (Gentry magazine).

She is survived by her husband, Lee Munson, a brother, Dr. Sandor Burstein and his wife, Elizabeth, a son, Gary Zellerbach, daughter-in-law Linda Zellerbach, two grandchildren, Laura and Randy Zellerbach, and three stepchildren, Eric Munson, Gigi Monterrosa, Anna Munson Woods, and their spouses. She was predeceased by her beloved sister Devera Kettner.

Private services are planned. In lieu of flowers, remembrances to Compassion & Choices, 3701 Sacramento St., #439, SF 94118, or your favorite charity, will make Merla smile, wherever she may be.