Sally and Warren Debenham

Sally & Warren Debenham
04/16/2024
Sally and Warren Debenham passed away in April 2024, six days apart and within a few weeks of their 67th wedding anniversary. Their lives were entwined by love for each other, joy in their children and gratitude for many and lifelong friends. Through Warren's ministry as an Episcopal priest, which Sally shared as a minister's wife, their varied community work and long lives well lived, they touched many. They found solace together in their faith, and particularly in the Bible passages in John 14:2-6, and Matthew 6:19-21.
Sally Kuechler Debenham died on April 10, 2024, at the age of 88. Descendant of a pioneer California family, Mrs. Debenham was a fifth-generation San Franciscan. Her great-great grandfather, the Reverend William Anderson Scott, was pastor to President Andrew Jackson and founder of the Presbyterian Seminary in San Anselmo, California. Her mother, Mary Stewart Kuechler., was founder of the Peninsula Volunteers, a nationally acclaimed gerontological organization.
Mrs. Debenham was born in San Francisco and raised in Atherton, California, attending the Convent of the Sacred Heart and Castilleja School. She made her debut at the San Francisco Cotillion and graduated in 1956 from Stanford University, with a degree in history, Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
Considered one of San Francisco's most fashionable women, and by designer Bill Blass as one of America's five most chic women, Mrs. Debenham used her fashion experience to work with Bay Area teen girls through organizations such as the Girl Scouts, the Girls Club of Menlo Park and the Episcopal Church of San Francisco. Long active with civic and community organizations, Mrs. Debenham was a past president of the Peninsula Volunteers, and a member of the Junior League of San Francisco, Junior League of Palo Alto, the San Francisco Ballet Auxiliary, the San Francisco Art Institute, the Oakland Children's Hospital Foundation, the San Francisco Opera Guild and the Alameda County Cancer League. She was also a member of the Menlo Circus Club, and the Francisca Club and Villa Taverna of San Francisco.
The Reverend Warren Debenham, an Episcopal priest, died on April 16, 2024, at the age of 91. Born in San Francisco, Warren Debenham attended Grant Elementary School and Lowell High School in San Francisco. In 1955, he graduated with a degree in Philosophy from Stanford University, where he met Sally. He was a member of Stanford's Varsity Men's Crew, which finished 5th in the nation his senior year. Having been called to God while at Stanford, Reverend Debenham studied at The General Theological Seminary in New York, New York, and received a Master of Divinity degree in 1958 from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, in Berkeley, California.
Reverend Debenham pursued his calling as the pastor of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, in Sunnyvale, California (where the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce selected him as Young Man of the Year), and as the pastor of St. Alban's Episcopal Church of Albany, California. He later had a neighborhood ministry in West Oakland, California, and assisted at St. Augustine's Episcopal Church of Oakland, California.
Reverend Debenham was also nationally known as the foremost collector in the United States of comedy and novelty sound recordings. He authored a discography "Laughter on Record" and was a consultant for comedy radio programming for Dick Cavett, The Comedy Hour and Dr. Demento. His collection resides at Emerson College, in Boston, Massachusetts, as the Reverend Warren Debenham Comedy Sound Collection.
Survived by their children Susie Debenham (Oakland, CA), Steve Debenham (Redwood City, CA) and Patty Debenham (San Francisco, CA), and grandchildren Ashby Russell, Charlie Russell, Catherine Debenham, Ella Debenham, Owen Debenham and Natalie Debenham, and numerous nieces and nephews.
The family requests that memorial gifts be made in the names of Sally and Warren Debenham to the following charitable organizations: St. Augustine's Episcopal Church, Oakland, California; St. Alban's Episcopal Church, Albany, California; The Peninsula Volunteers, Menlo Park, California; Stanford University; and The American Cancer Society.