Obituaries are supported by a generous grant from Sinai Memorial Chapel.
Evalee Harrison
Feb. 27, 1938–Feb. 22, 2023
Evalee Harrison (née Solomon) of Berkeley, CA, longtime health educator, movement therapist, and media personality whose diverse career included TV, radio, and print media, is finally at rest. In a career that spanned 60 years, she was literally a mover and shaker … a passionate proponent of exercise, fitness, healthcare, wellness, diet, travel, and especially the use of movement and dance therapies. These modalities helped her viewers, readers, listeners, students, clients, and the general public live healthier and longer lives. And indeed they did!
Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Evalee (pronounced Eva-lee, as one word) was the youngest of Max and Clara Solomon’s five children: Cressa Goodman Rich, Miriam Glazer, Beverly Willner, and Dr. Neil Solomon. She grew up in nearby Kittanning before moving to Canton, OH, where she lived for most of her childhood.
Evalee attended Western Reserve in Cleveland before meeting Michael Harrison of Case Technical, and enrolling in the University of Michigan. She majored in American studies and minored in movement education and television communications. While in Ann Arbor, she married Michael and gave birth to a son, Craig.
In the early 1960s the family relocated to the SF Bay Area, taking up residence in Berkeley, where her husband began his career as a computer science professor at the University of California. Soon thereafter Evalee could be seen mornings on NBC affiliate KRON-TV channel 4 with her exercise show “Take A Break.” She also appeared in local television commercials for a popular Polynesian restaurant chain founded in Emeryville, and a Tahoe ski resort.
Over the years Evalee could be seen regularly as a fitness expert on KPIX Channel 5’s “Morning Show” and later “People Are Talking,” promoting and demonstrating fitness and aerobics and stretching activities.
In addition to fitness programs, Evalee worked as a TV news reporter, hosting local television segments in San Francisco focusing on celebrity interviews and providing informative daily lifestyle segments on health and nutrition.
From the 1960s to the 2000s, her exercise columns ran in the numerous local newspapers, initially in the Berkeley Daily Gazette and later the Berkeley Voice. In the 1980s her “Fitness For Free” columns in the Oakland Tribune promoted health and wellness, and often featured her interviews ranging from judges and executives, to conductors and professional athletes sharing their wellness strategies. Radio listeners also enjoyed Evalee’s renditions of “Fitness For Free,” which ran on KOIT’s AM and FM stations. She even provided fitness columns in English that were translated for a popular Japanese training magazine. Her weekend “Workforce Wellness” San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner columns covered an array of topics beyond fitness, including stress reduction, burnout, music therapy, and longevity.
Evalee enjoyed a long association with the Claremont Hotel, Club and Spa, where she taught Dancercize and later aqua aerobics at their pool club, and served as spa director. Another longtime association was with the Berkeley YMCA. Her morning and evening Dancercize classes were popular with subscribers and drop-ins.
As a single mother in the ’70s, she took pride in her roles as part of the creation and leadership of the Y’s partnership with Herrick and Alta Bates Hospitals in their pioneering cardiac rehabilitation exercise classes of the mid ’70s. Her expertise and energy were key components in these innovative classes where titans and entrepreneurs of local industry recovered from heart attacks and built healthier practices while living longer, fuller lives. Her vision, inspiration, and tutelage helped rebuild the stamina and confidence of these Type A achievers, as she taught eating awareness, the importance of warm-ups and cool-downs, and heart-healthy exercises for longevity.
In the mid ’70s she taught at UC Berkeley in the departments of Human Nutrition, and Conservation and Natural Resources. At the time, their use of an anamorphic lens helped individuals losing weight to recognize their improving body images and encourage their progress.
Evalee also enjoyed a decades-long association with the senior center of the Berkeley Chinese Community Church, where her focus on teaching fitness and longevity, combined with her love of languages, helped her incorporate Cantonese as part of her success formula. Employing encouragement, engagement, storytelling, and humor, her fit-tip questions exercised the minds and bodies of her students. She kvelled when introducing strangers to their best friends … their own body!
When her family went on sabbatical in the late ’60s and lived in Cambridge, MA, her fitness columns appeared in The Boston Globe. Later, while living in Jerusalem in 1970, her exercise columns began appearing in The Jerusalem Post. Entrepreneurial as always, she approached the state’s television station about an exercise show. Not being able to speak Middle Eastern languages at the time, she convinced the producers that if they would translate her exercise scripts from English she would memorize and deliver them in the local language. Soon, with black leotards covering all exposed flesh below her chin, she was delivering studio fitness programs in Arabic to new fans in Israel and parts of Jordan.
When not teaching and writing, she loved to cook, entertain, travel, cross-country ski, visit lighthouses, volunteer with animal rescue groups, enjoy dancing, music of too many genres to list, and could often be seen bicycling the flatlands of Berkeley and later mopeding the hills as she modeled movement and fitness for all.
Evalee was a lifelong learner who received certifications in gerontology, drug and alcohol studies, and gastronomy. Volunteering as a docent for Berkeley’s Magnes Museum combined her love of learning with her love of Judaism. She also enjoyed time as a program director at Temple Sinai of Oakland, CA, and the launching of their Café Sinai.
Throughout her life, Evalee was an advocate for animals, from growing up with Great Danes, Duke and Duchess, as protectors in Canton, to inheriting a beloved Tibetan Terrier, Pierre, on her sister Beverly’s passing in Orange County. She supported numerous animal charities and spoke often of the importance of giving loving homes to abandoned dogs and cats otherwise destined to be euthanized.
Evalee loved befriending people wherever she went. Friends spoke of her energy, fun-loving nature and joie-de-vivre. At a gathering to celebrate her life, her son described her sense of humor and wonderful way with words. When asked what Evalee was like as a mother, he described her as a blend of the elegance of Doris Day, sense of humor of Lucille Ball, and spirited independence of Goldie Hawn.
Evalee passed in her sleep in mid-February last year, ultimately negotiating a peace with Alzheimer’s disease. She was predeceased by her Romanian-American parents Max and Clara Solomon, and four siblings. She is survived by son Craig, who resides in Emeryville, CA.
Her family thanks Hospice of the East Bay for their gentle touch and support of her as she transitioned.
Friends and kindred spirits are invited to make contributions in her memory to Friends of The IDF (fidf.org/) or Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, UT (BestFriends.org).
To communicate further with her family please email [email protected].
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Patsy Greenstein
July 16, 1932–Feb. 9, 2024
Patsy Greenstein passed away peacefully at age 91 on Feb. 9, 2024. She enjoyed 48 remarkably happy years with her loving husband, Saul Greenstein, who passed away in 2003.
Born in 1932 in Fort Dodge, Iowa, she graduated from the University of Iowa in 1954 with a bachelor of music degree in violin playing. She lived in Dubuque, Iowa, from 1956 until she moved with Saul and her two young sons to San Francisco in 1973. She divided her time between her Presidio Heights home in San Francisco and a home in Sonoma. Always energetic and generous with her time, she was active in many volunteer causes, such as serving as president of the San Francisco chapter of Hadassah, the San Francisco section of the National Council of Jewish Women, and the California State Historic Park Association. She was an active, longtime member of Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco. She is survived by her two sons, John and Michael Greenwood of San Francisco. She requested that her memorial service be private.