Brian O'Neill, Superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area since 1986, died at the age of 67 Wednesday afternoon of complications from heart surgery. O'Neill was lauded as a great contributor to the success of the GGNRA by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as author and activist Amy Meyer, a long-time friend of Dick Jordan, and whom, along with former Sierra Club President Ed Wayburn (now 102) and the late San Francisco Congressman, Phil Burton, "nudged" the federal government until it created the GGNRA. (Click here to read the full story of O'Neill's passing by San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Peter Fimrite and Carl Nolte).
Ironically, Mr. O'Neill was not the first GGNRA Superintendent to die from heart problems. Bill Whalen, GGNRA Superintendent from 1972-1977, and later Director of the National Park Service, died from a heart attack in September 2006. Whalen was 66. (Click here for Whalen's obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle).
Dick met both men. The next time you're out in the Marin Headlands, walking along the shore of Crissy Field in the Presidio, or hiking along the Bolinas Ridge trail, take a moment to stop, gaze at the thousands of acres of federal parkland we enjoy, and remember how much we Meanderers in Marin have benefited from the work of these two park superintendents.
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