August 10, 1962 – August 5, 2013
Ira Z. Kleinberg passed away at his home in Oakland on August 5, 2013. Although Ira had a history of heart disease, his early death was unexpected.
Ira was an information technology visionary, taxonomist, and librarian.
He was born and grew up in Miami Beach, Florida, earned a BA degree at the University of Illinois and moved to San Francisco in 1984. Here he started his business Back Matter and served as an indexer and consultant for technical publishers. He also wrote for the San Francisco Sentinel. Ira studied at Rutgers University in New Brunswick from 1991 to 1998, receiving an MLS degree and pursuing a doctorate in communications, information and library science.
Happily returning to San Francisco in 1998, Ira worked at Netscape, as a technology consultant for Aquent, and at the San Francisco Public Library. For the past 10 years he has served as senior taxonomist at Pearson Education.
Ira moved to Oakland in 2005 and loved his home near Lake Merritt.
He was a gentle and generous man with incisive wit and sublime intelligence. He loved gardening, cooking, bicycling, camping, technology, media, and culture.
Ira is survived by his parents Faith and Sheldon Kleinberg of North Miami Beach; his brothers Steven Kleinberg and David Kleinberg; beloved friends Bruce and Steve, David and Christian, Jenny and Eric, Jessica, Phillip and David, Scooter and Paul, Zillie, and many, many more.