Sylvia Ardisson Bunshoft
September 12, 1932 – July 11, 2023
Sylvia Ardisson Bunshoft was born on September 12, 1932 and died on July 11, 2023 at the age of 90. She spent her early life on a farm in western Pennsylvania in a family with roots in the Piedmont region of Italy. Her parents Adam Ardisson and Lena Farinetti Ardisson and her brother William Ardisson predeceased her. Sylvia was baptized Catholic, raised Presbyterian, and later identified as a Humanist. She attended West Virginia University and later a teachers’ college, where she earned her teaching certificate. She taught elementary school children in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, US Army dependent children in Heidelberg, Germany, and after a move to San Francisco, elementary school children in Oakland. She was a member of the team at UC Berkeley that developed the Science Curriculum Improvement Study, which became the standard science curriculum for elementary school students in California.
Sylvia met Barry Bunshoft shortly after arriving in San Francisco in 1962 and they married in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1966. In the winter they spent enjoyable ski tours in the Squaw Valley and in the summer hikes in the High Sierra. They first lived on the Filbert Steps on Telegraph Hill, then in the Berkeley Hills for a few years before moving to their longtime family home in Presidio Heights. Son Adam was born in 1970 and daughter Jennifer in 1971. Adam attended Town School and Marin Country Day School, Webb School in Claremont and UC Berkeley. Jennifer attended Burke’s, University High School, Middlebury College and Hastings College of the Law. As a family, they traveled extensively throughout Europe – to London, where Barry’s law firm had an office and a flat, across France from the Normandy coast to Paris to the ski resorts of Val d’Isère and Courcheval in Rome, where they made good friends and Apulia at the foot of Italy, where they had other good friends.
Sylvia was active in her community. She served for many years on the board and at times as president of the Presidio Heights Association of Neighbors. Her most successful accomplishment was preventing UCSF from expanding dramatically in Laurel Village, where it didn’t belong. She encouraged the Chancellor of UCSF to develop in a more appropriate place, which was a catalyst for UCSF to expand in Mission Bay. She became involved in politics when Barry’s close friend Michael Dukakis was running for president. At her home in Presidio Heights, she has hosted numerous fundraisers for candidates from school board to President of the United States, including Senator Ted Kennedy, who kindly invited her to events at Kennedy Grounds in Hyannisport and at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston .
Above all, Sylvia devoted herself to her family and friends. She was a legendary Italian cook, entertained wonderfully and made people feel comfortable in her home. She was an accomplished gardener and flower arranger. In later years, Sylvia and Barry moved to Sun Valley, Idaho. Sylvia continued her love of skiing until a skier crashed into her and broke her hip. Sylvia developed a heart condition, which was treated first by replacing her aortic valve and later by undergoing an experimental procedure to replace her mitral valve. Unfortunately, in later years, the effects of heart disease affected her quality of life. Shortly before her death from heart failure, her cardiologist told her that she was the oldest person in the world to have survived this experimental procedure.
Sylvia is survived by husband Barry Bunshoft, son Adam Bunshoft (Kathleen Waters), daughter Jennifer Bunshoft (Ruggero Pergher), granddaughters Mary Bunshoft, Elizabeth Bunshoft and Isabel Pergher, and niece Susan Ardisson (Joseph Decker). There will be memorial services for Sylvia on August 20 at 4:00 p.m. at 5 Willow Road, Sun Valley and August 27 at 4:00 p.m. at the St. Francis Yacht Club, On the Marina, San Francisco. The family requests that all donations go to St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation, PO Box 7005, Ketchum, ID 83340 in Sylvia’s memory.
Published by San Francisco Chronicle on July 20, 2023.
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