Services for longtime educator Robert Foley, whose broad career included service as both a non-Jewish principal and an administrator at two Bay Area Jewish day schools, will be held this Sunday in Palo Alto.
Foley died Oct. 18 during emergency surgery at Stanford Hospital for an aortic tear. He was 68.
Foley served as principal of the San Francisco campus of Brandeis Hillel Day School from 1985 to 1989. From 1995 to 1998, he worked at the South Peninsula Hebrew Day School in Sunnyvale, first as the director of general studies and then for one year as principal.
“He was always willing to listen or help out,” recalls Barbara Spielman, special projects coordinator at the South Peninsula school. “His door was always open to everybody, whether it was staff, students or parents.”
Reared as an Episcopalian, Foley joined the Unitarian Universalist Church as an adult and had strong interests in Judaism and Eastern religions, according to his wife, Barbara.
An ardent student, Foley did a “tremendous amount of reading,” teaching himself some Yiddish, Jewish history and culture, she added. “He just seemed to have an interest in Judaism for many years.”
At the time of his death, Foley was principal of Lincoln Elementary School in Newark, where he had worked since 1998, creating a chess club for students that has been named for him. “He would give them $5 or so if they beat him,” his wife said, noting that one student did cash in.
Foley was remembered at Brandeis Hillel as “a sensitive and principled educator and a man of great dignity,” according to Neal Biskar, assistant head of the San Francisco campus who worked as a teacher and assistant principal under Foley.
Brandeis secretary Juanita Bondoc said, “Everybody remembers him as a gentle and fine person.”
A Menlo Park resident, Foley grew up in Nevada City. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of U.C. Berkeley and earned two master’s degrees from Stanford University.
His career of more than 30 years included 16 years as a teacher in grades five to eight and administrative jobs at both public and private schools in the Bay Area.
In addition to his wife, Foley is survived by his children, Dr. Paula Rubio of Golden, Colo., and Dr. David Mayer of Etna, N.H., and three grandchildren.
Sunday’s memorial will take place at 1 p.m. at the Lucie Stern Community Center, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.
Donations may be sent to the Robert Foley Scholarship Fund, Lincoln School, 36111 Bettencourt St., Newark, CA 94560.