Max Segal
Died Sunday morning January 11. For more than sixty years he was the beloved husband of Edna who died in 1995. He will be missed by his son Morley and his partner Maurine, and his son Rodney of San Francisco, and his former daughter-in-law Joyce and her husband Larry of Potomac Falls, VA, and his grandchildren Arline and her husband Alex of Sleepy Hollow, NY, Eric and his partner Anne of Arlington MA, and Adam and his wife Kim of Salem, MA. Max had six great grandchildren, Adam and Nate of Sleepy Hollow, NY and Niko, Sky, Alaya and Sadia of Arlington, MA. Max's life spanned most of twentieth century San Francisco. He was born in February 1907 in a tent community of earthquake and fire survivors in Golden Gate Park. He spoke often of attending the Panama Pacific Exposition in 1915. He attended the old Bernal Heights Grammar School and Polytechnic High School. He then spent over fifty years in the printing business in San Francisco. As a young man he started as an in-house printer for the National Carbon Company. Later he became familiar with the wider range of printing, working with commercial artists, photographers and advertising agencies as a salesman for the Weiss Printing Company. In 1951 he started is own business "Printing By Segal". Although it was a small business he served a number of San Francisco companies including the then popular Rolley's Sea and Ski. He retired in 1974.

For Max his company was more than a business. It was an opportunity to bring together his artistic ability, his love of words and the English language, and his penchant for "always finding a way to get things done". He also expressed his love of words in the 1940s by writing a "News and Schmooz" column in the style of the late Herb Caen, for The Peninsula B'nai Brith. After retirement he continued to use his printing abilities by gold embossing prayer books for Bar and Bat Mitzvah students at Peninsula Temple Sholom. Though of working class origins Max was a gentleman in the oldest and best sense of the word, a man of "the highest honor, courtesy and morality". This was no more evident than in his last years as he faced blindness (an ironic fate for a printer) and near deafness with courage and an unfailing sense of humor. He will be missed by those who knew him. Funeral Services were held on Friday, January 16th. Donations in Max's name can be made to the Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, 214 Van Ness Ave., SF., CA 94102.

Published in the San Francisco Chronicle, 2/1/04

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