Obituaries are supported by a generous grant from Sinai Memorial Chapel.
Bruce Alan Blockley
June 11, 1946–Oct. 16, 2025
Bruce Alan Blockley passed away peacefully on October 16, 2025, at age 79. Born in San Francisco to Lorraine and Ted Blockley on June 11, 1946. Bruce enjoyed a distinguished 50-year career as a financial advisor.
Bruce will be remembered as a loving father with a passion for the guitar, tennis and golf. He brought laughter to those around him with his wit, treasured his many friendships and appreciated a good martini.
He is survived by his son, Simon, and his sister, Judy Salgado.
Donations may be made to the frontotemporal dementia research program at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center.
Sinai Memorial Chapel | (415) 921-3636
Samuel “Shamy” Noily
March 16, 1944–Oct. 24, 2025
Samuel Noily, Shamy to those who knew and loved him, passed away on Friday, October 24th, 2025, at the age of 81. He died at the home he designed and loved in Marin County, surrounded by his family, just as he had wished.
Shamy was born in Tel Aviv in 1944, before the founding of the State of Israel, to Shoshana and Jehuda Noily, who had made Aliyah 10 years earlier from Antwerp, Belgium. His family would often joke that he was a Bar Mitzvah present for his brother Josh, who was 13 years his senior. He displayed artistic talent at a very young age and was encouraged by his parents to pursue it. With his older brother out of the house, he often sought the company of the other children in his central Tel Aviv neighborhood, playing in roving packs and getting up to mischief. He attended Gymnasia Herzliya and served in the Israeli military before joining the rest of his family, who had by then moved to Southern California. While he left Israel at a relatively young age, he was an Israeli Sabra through and through, both in his character and in his commitment to his native country and love for its people.
At UCLA, Shamy earned a BA in Fine Art while working for the Dickson Art Galleries on campus, where he built functional gallery spaces – his first entrée into architecture. He and his Israeli “chevreh” would attend folk dancing nights at UCLA’s Hillel where, in 1967, he met the love of his life, Daphna. Despite being a long-haired hippie artist, Daphna’s parents welcomed Shamy into the family, and the couple married in 1970. Truth be told, everyone was happy to see their love blossom as the families had known each other years before in Tel Aviv.
After UCLA, Shamy continued his studies at UC Berkeley, where he earned a Master of Architecture degree, a move that permanently brought them to the Bay Area. Shamy found his calling in Architecture, channeling his artistic talents to create spaces of beauty, community, and purpose. Of the many projects he designed, the ones that brought him the most satisfaction and recognition were the remodels of his homes, first in San Francisco and then in Marin, and the Jo Naymark Holocaust Memorial Chapel at Camp Swig in Saratoga.
This Chapel, designed by Shamy in collaboration with the camp’s artist-in-residence and his dear friend, Helen Burke, was a synagogue unique to its location and purpose, functioning as a prayer space, memorial, and living camp facility for generations of campers and members of the Jewish community. The Chapel’s approach was via a long footbridge steadily ascending through the Madrones and Live Oaks, passing through copper gates welded by Burke, which opened to reveal an angular, modern Californian exterior structure. Upon entering, the visitor was struck by the prayer hall’s soaring arches of golden-hued wood beams, inspired by the interiors of Polish synagogues – a space blending modernity and tradition. Built into the slope of the hill, to one side of the sanctuary were exposed roots and trunks of trees growing from of an earthen slope which descended into a mosaic stage depicting the 12 Tribes of Israel, while to the other side were the branches and treetops of the surrounding forest below. The chapel was a physical embodiment of the quote from the Ba’al Shem Tov inscribed in mosaic at the building’s entrance; “In Remembrance Is The Secret to Redemption”. Allan Temko, the late architectural critic for the SF Chronicle, wrote an article about the Chapel titled “Little Synagogue Shows Architecture Can Be Fine Art”.
Later in his career, Shamy turned to real estate investing, a domain in which his architectural talent became a distinct advantage, seeing potential in the unlikeliest of places.
In retirement, Shamy continued his artistic endeavors through the mediums of ceramics, life drawing, and painting. His art can be seen on his website: shamynoilyart.com, and much of his work graces the homes of his many friends and admirers.
Though Shamy’s professional work and art were important to him, nothing was closer to his heart than his family. Together with Daphna, he had three sons, Adam, Ori, and David. Shamy was the consummate loving father; getting down on the floor to play with the children, teaching them to ride bikes, building an annual sukkah on the deck of their Carl Street house, using marzipan to make creative photorealistic birthday cakes, and filling a home with song and laughter as Daphna played guitar or piano.
Tragically, Ori died just shy of being 10 years old, an event which truly broke Shamy’s heart. Shortly thereafter, Shamy had his first heart attack, kicking off a 30+ year fight for his life – one so worth living. In that time, he celebrated the marriages of his surviving sons, the births of grandchildren, and many more anniversaries and other simchas.
Shamy is survived by Daphna, his wife of 55 years; his son Adam (Maia) and their children Hillel, Elisheva, and Asher; his son David (Helen) and their daughter Aviva; and other dear family including Karyl Noily, Rabbi Dev Noily (Sara), Jonathan Todd, his many other relatives in Israel and across the US and Europe. He is predeceased by his parents Shoshana and Jehuda, his brother Josh, and his son, Ori.
Shamy will be remembered for many things, including his signature mustache, his talent, his connection to family and community, being a great dancer, his laugh, and his love of life.
His memory is a blessing!
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that those wishing to make a donation in Shamy’s memory do so to one of the following causes that were closest to his heart: URJ Camp Newman or Americans for Ben Gurion University.
Sinai Memorial Chapel | (415) 921-3636
Karlyn Marie Glaser Schneider
Jan. 7, 1932–April 25, 2025
Karlyn Marie Glaser Schneider, a third-generation Californian, grandmother, and beloved member of her community, passed away peacefully in her sleep on April 25, 2025.
Born in California, Karlyn experienced a childhood of change. After her parents’ divorce when she was six, she lived in Los Angeles with her mother until age 16, when she and her sister Michelle moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to live with their father and stepmother. She graduated from Castilleja High School in 1950 and attended the University of Colorado Boulder, where she was a proud member of Sigma Delta Tau sorority. She later transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with her degree.
In 1953, Karlyn married Marvin Nathan, with whom she raised three children: Anne, Susan, and Stephen. After their divorce in 1973, she pursued her passion for education, earning her teaching credential and master’s degree in special education from San Francisco State University. For more than two decades, from 1974 until her retirement in 1996, she worked as a resource specialist for the San Mateo City Schools. Following her retirement, she continued to give back to the education field, supervising student teachers at the University of San Francisco until 2007.
Karlyn’s curiosity and love of learning carried into other parts of her life. From 1996 to 2022, she volunteered as a storyteller at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. She was also a lifetime member of the League of Women Voters, dedicated to civic engagement and community service.
In 1982, Karlyn married Dr. David Schneider with whom she shared twenty-four wonderful years filled with love, family, and travel until his passing in 2006. Together they enjoyed many trips to Europe and built a beautiful life together. In 2008, Karlyn’s life was brightened once again when she met her partner, Frank Barham, at a Fromm Institute class. For the rest of her life, she and Frank shared joy, companionship, and the warmth of family – his own family welcoming her fully into their lives.
Family was always Karlyn’s greatest joy. She cherished gatherings around holiday tables, weekends with her children and grandchild, and the connections she nurtured with her extended family.
Karlyn is survived by her children and their families: Anne Collier (David); Susan Hammer (Bruce); Stephen Nathan (Janice Beck); and her grandson, Daniel Hammer. She is also survived by her nieces, Leann, Diann, and Beth Sichel. She was predeceased by her beloved sisters Michelle Glaser, Betty Sichel, Bonnie Stuhlmacher, and Edna “Cookie” Blumenthal.
Her family and friends will remember her for her warmth, her devotion to education, her love of storytelling, and her unwavering commitment to family.
Donations in Karlyn’s memory may be made to Peninsula Temple Sholom or to Second Harvest Food Bank.
Gerald Arthur Wacknov
July 13, 1939–Oct. 10, 2025
Gerald Arthur Wacknov was born on July 13, 1939, to Alex and Sadie Wacknov in Kansas City, Missouri. Jerry was the fifth of six children: Leonard (dec.), Paul, Donna, Betty (dec.), and David. After graduating from Southwest High School, Jerry attended Washington University in St. Louis and then the University of Missouri in Kansas City, where he graduated with a BA in Economics.
He married Myrna Cooper in 1963 and graduated from Columbia Law School in 1964. Jerry and Myrna then returned to Kansas City to start a family, and he began working as an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In 1976, Jerry was appointed as an Administrative Law Judge. Consequently, the family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. Jerry retired in 2014 after a fifty-year career with the NLRB. In retirement, he spent his time following his passions: reading, hiking, bicycling, and especially creating artistic furniture and sculptural pieces.
Jerry died unexpectedly on October 10, 2025. He will be greatly missed by Myrna, his loving wife of 62 years; his sons Bill, Kevin, and Joel; his daughters-in-law Lisa and Eve-Marie; his grandsons Nicolas and Noah; Nicolas’s fiancée Kelsey; his siblings Paul, Donna, and David; his sister-in-law Chris; and many nieces, nephews, and friends.
A memorial service was held on October 16 at Peninsula Sinai Congregation in Foster City, California. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests making a donation to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research or to any other charitable organization supporting and promoting humanitarian causes in honor of Jerry’s love for all people, especially those in need.