May 7, 1935 — September 20, 2020
Steve Walters would have cheered the Biden-Harris team taking the White House. Instead of getting that opportunity, he got the jump on the rest of us and exhaled permanently on September 20, 2020. Steve's heart attack happened just over a day after his favorite, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, took her last breath. Steve's political savvy about Mitch McConnell's next steps may have hastened his demise.
Stephen Harmon Walters, born 85 years ago in New York City, was active in Democratic politics in San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s, with tenure as president of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club in the late 1970s. Steve was also a founder of the Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS) Research and Education Foundation, the precursor to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, in the early 1980s.
A gifted teacher of children, he was beloved at the progressive Peninsula School in Menlo Park and had a long stint as a union organizer at Service Employees International Union, leading trips to Europe in his retirement.
Throughout his life his sense of humor led the way. If you remember Steve, you'll remember that. He had a mouth on him too.
Survivors include siblings Tina and Jay Walters, his goddaughter, Amanda Sonenberg, and her mother, Lynne Sonenberg.
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