Somewhere in a closet of his Ukiah home, Harry Gluckman has a notebook crammed with hundreds of old Herb Caen columns.
Though a loyal Caen reader since his teens, Gluckman saved these particular columns for a reason. They contain items that he sent over the years to the San Francisco Chronicle columnist, who died of lung cancer Saturday of last week at age 80.
There was the blurb that declared Gluckman, former owner of the business Mailboxes Etc. on San Francisco’s Mission Street, “Mayor of Lower Mission Street.” The mention led dozens to flock to Gluckman’s store just to meet the man Caen had touted; many ended up becoming loyal customers.
Then there was the item about Gluckman walking down the street during the Yom Kippur War, a nervous American Jew with a transistor radio tethered to his ear. Thinking Gluckman was following a ball game, a passerby asked, “What’s the score?” He answered: “Israel, seven. Arabs, zero.”
It was a classic Caen-like quip and the columnist ate it up.
“He once ran an item that I sent him more than three years later, then he sent me a personal note that was so kind,” Gluckman said. Caen’s notes, Gluckman recalled, usually said something like: “Yeah. You’re right. Herb.”
Such notes were typical for Caen. Though he reportedly received an average of more than 45,000 letters and 24,000 phone calls a year, he always made time to answer readers and contributors.
“He acknowledged everything; that I think was the key to his great success,” Gluckman said. “He never forgot a friend.”
As he pondered Caen’s death earlier this week, Gluckman reflected the sentiments of many Bay Area residents struggling to come to terms with the end of the Caen era. “I feel like I’ve lost a member of my family,” he said.
Indeed, over 58 years as a Chronicle columnist, Caen became part of the daily lives of countless area residents. He loved the city with all his heart and the city loved him back.
Caen was born Herbert Eugene Caen in Sacramento on April 3, 1916 to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother. Last year, he was featured in a story on famous Jewish San Franciscans that ran in a special issue marking the Jewish Bulletin’s centennial year.
“He felt Jewish,” Gluckman said, though “religion was not his shtick. He thought that all people should be brothers and the hell with all this divisiveness.”
Merla Zellerbach, who worked as a Chronicle columnist for 23 years and was a close friend of Caen’s, agreed.
“I don’t know that he ever went to temple or observed any of the Jewish holidays,” said Zellerbach, now an editor at the Nob Hill Gazette. “But he was certainly a spiritual person in many ways. He was very loyal to his friends and a loving family member.”
Still, Caen’s Jewish roots did pop out now and then in more obvious ways, mostly through his inimitable sense of humor.
At speeches in the Jewish community, he was known to pepper his remarks with barbs at Jewish politicians. Back when Sen. Dianne Feinstein was mayor, for example, he once called her “San Francisco’s Jewish princess.”
“What we really need is a Jewish mother,” he added, “someone who goes down to the soup kitchens and says, “Eat, eat.'”
Herb Caen is survived by his wife, Ann Moller Caen, son Christopher Caen, daughter-in-law Stacey Caen and two stepchildren, Stephen Moller and Catherine Moller.
A memorial service for Caen was held today at Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill. It was followed by a “Celebration of Life” party on Herb Caen Way along the Embarcadero.
Donations in Caen’s memory can be sent to the Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund, P.O. Box 44740, San Francisco, CA, 94114; the U.C. San Francisco Foundation for Cancer Research, P.O. Box 0248, San Francisco, 94143-0248; or the Herb Caen/Chronicle Lecture Series at the U.C. Berkeley School of Journalism, 121 North Gate Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720.