Merla Zellerbach

2015 - 21 HUNTINGTON COURT, Firefall Editions (hardcover); 2014 - THE A-LIST MURDERS, Firefall Editions (hardcover); 2013 - DYING TO DANCE, Firefall Editions (hardcover); 2012 - LOVE TO DIE FOR, Firefall Editions (hardcover); 2010 - THE MISSING MOTHER, Firefall Editions (hardcover); 2009 - MYSTERY OF THE MERMAID, Firefall Editions (hardcover); 2009 - SECRETS IN TIME, Firefall Editions (hardcover & paperback); 1990 - RITTENHOUSE SQUARE, Random House (hardcover), Doubleday Book Club, NY Times Recommended Reading List; 1989 - SUGAR, Ballantine; 1987 - LOVE THE GIVER, Ballantine; 1987 - CAVETT MANOR, Ballantine; 1986 - THE WILDES OF NOB HILL, Ballantine; 1961 - LOVE IN A DARK HOUSE; Doubleday.

3. Merla Zellerbach: A struggle to have 'death with dignity’ San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, January 25, 2015 by Leah Garchik

7. Letters to editor, Celebrating life of Merla Zellerbach San Francisco Chronicle, January 31, 2015

11. Miss Bigelow: Choices fundraiser shadowed by loss of Merla Zellerbach San Francisco Chronicle, February 26, 2015 by Catherine Bigelow

12. Why “Right-to-Die” Is 2016′s Most Consequential Bill, Calbuzz.com, March 20, 2015, editorial

Merla Zellerbach, née Myrle Carmel Burstein, was born in San Francisco in 1930, the daughter of Rabbi Elliot M. and Lottie Burstein. While attending Stanford University, she met and soon thereafter married Stephen Zellerbach. They had one child, son Gary. Her literary, civic and philanthropic work began at the time of her first marriage. By the time of her death on December 26, 2014, she authored 13 well reviewed novels and five self-help medical books, was a panelist for six years on the ABC TV show Oh My Word, and a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Subsequently, she was Editor of the Nob Hill Gazette for twelve years. Charities she supported and/or worked for included Compassion and Choices, the Coalition on Homelessness San Francisco, the Kidney Foundation, and a dozen more.

2014 - Junior League “Women at the Center Honors (WATCH)”; 2012 - Northern California chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation's Champion of Hope – Community Leader; 2010 - Compassion & Choices Hugh Gallagher Award; 2010 - Named “Literary Laureate” by The Friends of the San Francisco Public Library; 2007 - Mayor Gavin Newsom Proclamation of Merla Zellerbach Day, October 1; 2000 - California State Assembly Certificate of Recognition; 2000 - US Senate Certificate of Commendation; 2000-14: Listed (Marquis) Who's Who In America; Who's Who In Entertainment; 1999 - New York Times rave review for Rittenhouse Square; 1999 - Wellness.Books.com Reviewer's Choice Award (The Allergy Sourcebook); 1996 - Governor Pete Wilson commendation award; 1994 - Where Magazine International Achievement Award for Best Article Writing; 1983 - Mayor Dianne Feinstein Proclamation of Merla Zellerbach Day, November 1.

1. Merla Zellerbach, S.F. writer and civic leader, dies San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, December 27, 2014 by Leah Garchik

Zellerbach became involved in philanthropy in her early 20s, first as Queen of the Mardi Gras (a benefit for the Little Jim Club of Children's Hospital), later volunteering for Planned Parenthood, the American Cancer Society and the Red Cross. She founded SF Sponsors and Conard House, which helps people self-manage mental illness, co-chaired the annual Beaux Arts Ball, and was a board member of the San Francisco Art Institute, Patrons of Art & Music, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She was named the Northern California chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation's 2012 Champion of Hope, and in 2014, the Junior League honored her with their “Women at the Center Honors (WATCH)” award for her major impact on philanthropy and volunteerism in the Bay Area.

5. Happy Endings Stanford Magazine, November/December, 2012 by Elihu Blotnick

2. Merla Zellerbach's Career In High Society San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, November 23, 2008 by Carolyne Zinko

2007 – 2014; Editor Emerita and staff writer for Nob Hill Gazette 1995 - 2007; Editor, Nob Hill Gazette 1975-93; Enrichment Lecturer and writing instructor on cruise ships 1965-70; Panelist on ABC-TV's OH MY WORD, w/June Lockhart 1962-85; Featured columnist, MY FAIR CITY, S.F. Chronicle

1996 - The Allergy Sourcebook, Lowell House (Division of McGraw Hill)

Her marriage to Stephen Zellerbach ended after 18 years in an amicable divorce. Her second husband for 26 years was TV and radio commentator Fred Goerner, author of “The Search for Amelia Earhart.” He died of cancer in 1994. Four years later, at the home of Merla's close friends Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Richard Blum, she married former Crown-Zellerbach executive and longtime Civil Service and Library Commissioner Lee Munson. They remained married until her death.

Cosmopolitan, Travel & Leisure, Reader's Digest, Prevention, Women's World, This Week, Saturday Evening Post, and others; 1989-99; Cover stories: SF Focus, Gentry, Nob Hill Gazette, Where Magazine; 1985-91; Featured articles (8) in Town & Country.

She left The Chronicle in 1985 and a decade later joined the Nob Hill Gazette as Editor, staying until 2007. She also wrote its Let's Dish column that reported on the San Francisco social scene. The Friends of the San Francisco Public Library made her a literary laureate in 2010. At 80, she re-energized her career, launching a series of successful mystery novels. Her earlier books painted psychological portraits. The new Hallie Marsh Mystery series, however, reflected Merla's foremost concern: death as an injustice. In the series, she established her own alter-ego. Hallie Marsh became an accidental detective after breast cancer led her to recreate herself. Surrounded by medical expertise and malfeasance, Hallie evolved novel by novel, as the mystery within began to reflect the mystery without, until she realizes her calling: to do good. After all, charity is large, public, and blessed; crime is small, secret, and destructive. Hallie persists in her search for the killer, by sifting through the secrets of the A-list set she was born to.

1984 - Detox: A Successful & Supportive Program for Freeing Your Body from the Physical and Psychological Effects of: Chemical Pollutants, Junk Food Additives, Sugar, Nicotine, Drugs, Alcohol, Caffeine, Prescription and Nonprescription Medications, and Other Environmental Toxins; Tarcher/Houghton-Mifflin (w/ Phyllis Saifer, MD)

1983 - The Type 1/Type 2 Allergy Relief Program; Tarcher/Houghton-Mifflin (w/ Alan Scott Levin, MD)

Zellerbach's San Francisco Chronicle column, My Fair City, ran for 23 years, from 1962 to 1985. The columns were lighthearted and bright, focused on a different subject each week. Composed primarily of quotes from locals (celebrities, socialites, politicians, and “every day folk”), she subtly explored and exposed truths about human nature. In the late 1960s, she appeared on a local ABC TV game show moderated by Jim Lange called "Oh My Word," in which panelists (Zellerbach, June Lockhart, Kathryn Ish, Scott Beach and Paul Speegle) offered definitions of obscure words to contestants who had to guess the right meaning to win.

In the 1960s, diagnosed with breast cancer, she had a double mastectomy. Merla spoke about it openly, as well as being a longtime supporter of breast cancer research. Long time friend and philanthropist Roselyne "Cissie" Swig, whose late husband was chairman of the Fairmont Hotel Management Co., said Zellerbach has spent years doing good works for friends and the community, often in understated ways. "Whatever she's done, she's done it with integrity."

Merla's father, Rabbi Elliot Burstein, led Congregation Beth Israel (now Beth Israel Judea) in San Francisco. Her mother, Lottie, helped out at her husband's temple and found a creative outlet by performing dramatic readings of plays. Merla's sister, Devera Kettner, was an actress (under the screen name Devera Burton), and her brother Sandor Burstein was a doctor. Merla Zellerbach took the last name of her first husband, Stephen Zellerbach (whose great-grandfather started the Zellerbach Paper Company in 1870, later known as Crown-Zellerbach Corporation) and kept the name the rest of her life, since she was known by it professionally.