John (Jack) Coll

John D. "Jack" Coll (1934-2012)

Jack Coll passed away peacefully on May 6, 2012 at his residence in Hayes Valley. He was proud to have grown up in the Richmond District and St. Monica's parish. He was a fourth generation San Franciscan and a third generation City employee. He believed in providing professional, attentive service to his patrons and saw public service as both a privilege and a calling.

In a career that spanned 35 years, Jack worked as a public librarian at the Main Library, North Beach, Anza, Richmond, and Merced branches from 1956 until his retirement in 1992. He served his longest tenure at the Merced Branch, where he provided constant and invaluable assistance and advice to students from SFSU, CCSF, Abraham Lincoln, Lowell, St. Ignatius and Mercy high schools, and the neighbors of the community in general. He knew what his patrons (as he called them) were interested in and was able to recommend the latest books on history, or novels, or mysteries depending on their needs. He was among the first generation of librarians who fought for recognition of librarianship as a profession that required graduate training, when it was still considered a lesser job, he believed, mainly because it was a female-dominated profession.

Jack Coll was a union man, as were his father and grandfather before him. Having witnessed the impact of patronage on the library system in his early years as a librarian, he believed strongly in fairness in hiring and promotion practices, and objected to sexism, racism or homophobia in particular. He was a pro-immigrant, anti-war, social-justice Catholic who supported the Sanctuary movement at St. John of God Church and San Francisco's City of Refuge Sanctuary Ordinance. Jack Coll's father Daniel was a life-long MUNI employee, driving first delivery trucks and then working as a chauffeur for MUNI officials and several San Francisco mayors. Dan Coll didn't even own his own car until after he retired.

Though his parents did not attend high school, they taught him to value education and life-long learning. He graduated from St. Monica's Grammar School ('47), St. Ignatius High School ('51), and studied one year at USF before transferring to U.C. Berkeley, where he took his undergraduate degree in history ('55) and Master's in Library Science ('56). Jack liked to say that, while he appreciated his parochial school education, after one year at USF he was happy to transfer to a public university where he could study alongside female students. He appreciated the one year he lived on-campus, in the International House, because like many San Franciscans of his generation and background, except for that one year, he lived with his parents until he married at the age of thirty-two. Jack respected and supported his wife's career as a college teacher and nurse-educator long before the coining of the phrase "dual-career couples."

After growing up in St. Monica's parish, Jack remained a devout Catholic all his life, and was a member of St. John of God Church as well as St. Paul's and St. Boniface parishes. He always appreciated a good cheeseburger at Bill's Place on Clement, Tyger's in Glen Park or Darla's in the Inner Sunset, and could be found in the midst of lively discussions over coffee with friends at the Diamond Heights shopping center. In conversation he could regale friends with stories about local labor history or history of transit in the area (Municipal Railway, Market Street Railway, Key System and others). Even after retirement Jack devoted many hours per week studying publishers guides and recommending book selections for the San Francisco Public Library as well as to his friends. He believed in the importance of books to the library, particularly the acquisition of rare and out-of-print books on local history and issues. A great sadness of his final years was that neurological disease robbed him of his ability to read, enjoy music, radio or films. For the past three years, Jack resided at Age Song Hayes Valley assisted living community, where staff provided him understanding, care and comfort during his final, most challenging time of life.

He was a quiet, practical progressive. He respected tradition and people with different opinions, but strongly supported changes to promote social justice and a more sustainable, healthy City for all. Though he was a product of parochial schooling, Jack and his wife Charlotte, who died in 1997, sent all three of their children to the SFUSD for K-12 education. They were proud of having put their first child, on her first day of kindergarten, on the first buses to go across town as part of the great experiment for the racial integration of San Francisco schools.

A 43 year resident of Diamond Heights, Jack was a steadfast volunteer for Democratic party causes and mailings, at public radio pledge drives (especially SFUSD's KALW), and at the SPCA. He was proud of his Irish American heritage, loved to talk with people about their own interests (and offer reference information suggestions!), and was an expert on San Francisco history, especially politics and public transit. He drew great comfort in his final years from his faith and the joyful, welcoming community at St. Boniface Church in the Tenderloin and particularly appreciated the love and respect shown there to all people, including the homeless and those suffering from depression and mental illness.

His final wishes were that he not be forgotten. He asked that his family and the San Francisco community continue to show one another the respect and loving care that he did to all his friends and neighbors throughout his life and in his career.

Jack's children and grandchildren especially appreciate stories about his life. Please send any memories you would like to share with them care of his daughter at [email protected] and/or join family and friends at his memorial services. He left some for us courtesy of the Western Neighborhoods Project, "Growing Up Near Geary in the 1940s" (http://www.outsidelands.org/coll.php) and "Sunset Streetcars" (http://www.outsidelands.org/sunset_streetcars.php).

Family, friends and colleagues may call Friday, May 11 from 5 to 7pm at Halsted N. Gray-Carew & English at 1123 Sutter St., SF with a vigil service at 6pm. Funeral Mass will be Saturday, May 12 at 10am at St. Boniface Church, 133 Golden Gate Ave., SF. Private interment. Contributions in his name and memory may be made to The Gubbio Project at St. Boniface Church http://thegubbioproject.org/.