Barbara Holman
OBITUARY
Barbara Marie Ware Holman passed away peacefully at the age of 97 in the loving care of Coming Home Hospice, at the converted Holy Redeemer convent in San Francisco.
Born in Oakland and raised in San Francisco, she met her future husband, Dr. David Holman, on the steps of Lowell High School in 1946 where they began a relationship that would span more than seven decades, a marriage that lasted 72 years, five sons, ten grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. She was a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a degree in bacteriology and was a member of Delta Gamma.
A devout Catholic, and member of St. Emydius Parish in San Francisco, her marriage to David, an equally devoted atheist, reflected the pragmatism that characterized both her faith and her relationships. She embraced the Second Vatican Council, folk mass, birth control and a women’s right to choose, yet found community and friendship within the parish and her favorite pastor, Father Grady.
Spending her summers with relatives in Watsonville, California planted the seeds of her lifelong passion for gardening. Visiting the Monet gardens at Giverny in 1974, she returned to her home in Westwood Park, dug up the front lawns and planted a French-inspired flower garden that brightened the otherwise foggy neighborhood.
Serving first as the PTA Director of Education and later as President of the San Francisco PTA, Barbara was a fierce advocate for inclusivity, quality education and active parent engagement in school policy. Her tenure in the PTA spanned efforts to strengthen bilingual education, oppose the discriminatory Briggs Initiative, and working tirelessly to ensure school desegregation efforts were fairly applied across all of San Francisco.
After her sons had grown and left home, Barbara returned to San Francisco City College to pursue a degree in horticulture and transformed the family van into a mobile landscaping business. Many of her clients were individuals she had first met through her years of civic and community leadership and with whom she remained closely connected to San Francisco politics.
Although advanced dementia took away her memories, her essential kindness and wry Irish sense of humor remained with her to the end, often surprising those around her with a witty remark, perfectly timed.
She is survived by her sister, Mary Ware Friedman; her sons, Christopher Holman and Laurie Van Wieren (Minneapolis, MN), Kevin Holman and Estrella Phegan (Sebastopol, CA), Neil Holman and Barb Nei (Minneapolis, MN), Alex Holman and Annie Calef Holman (Winsor, CA and Raymond, ME), and Theodore Holman and Christina O’Halloran (Santa Cruz CA); her niece and nephew, Victoria Holman and Victor de Journo; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her brother, Stanton Gilmore Ware; her sister, Virginia Quinan; and in 2024, by her husband, Dr. David Purdy Holman.
Donations to your favorite charity, and Barbara had many, would be a fitting tribute.
Private services are pending.