Obituaries: These Bay Area residents left us in 2025

They were our neighbors.

In 2025, we said farewell to notable residents whose names were well-known. And we remember those whose faces were less familiar.

Dennis Richmond and Belva Davis came into our homes for years with all the top headlines. Sly Stone sparked a revolution in music in the 1960s and ’70s. Charles Phan changed the way we thought about Vietnamese food. John Burton was a longtime lawmaker who helped shaped countless political careers. And John Beam was a beloved coach who shaped the lives of countless athletes who played for him.

And while they may be gone, they’re not forgotten.

Here are their stories:

January

Stan Buchanan, 91: He was a starter on the University of San Francisco’s celebrated 1955 national championship basketball team alongside Bill Russell and K.C Jones, then later became a teacher and coach at several Bay Area high schools; Jan. 2

Perry, 30: The beloved donkey, who lived for years at Bol Park in Palo Alto, was the inspiration for the character of Donkey in the “Shrek” films; Jan. 2

Scott Espinosa-Brown, 69: The longtime girls basketball coach was a fixture in Contra Costa County, leading Campolindo High to three NCS titles and serving as an assistant at Acalanes High; Jan. 5

Claude Jarman Jr., 90: The Marin County resident was a child actor who won an Oscar for his role in the film “The Yearling,” then years later served as executive director of the San Francisco International Film Festival; Jan. 12

Jessica York, 43: She was a reporter who worked at such Bay Area publications as the Alameda Journal, the Vallejo Times-Herald and the Santa Cruz Sentinel; Jan. 15

Robin Worthington, 92: She was a longtime Bay Area reporter and columnist for the Fremont Argus and the Mercury News; Jan. 16

Charles Phan, 62: He was an award-winning chef whose famed restaurant, Slanted Door, brought modern interpretations of Vietnamese cuisine to Bay Area and influenced restaurants around the US; Jan. 20

Julie Perez: She became a police reform advocate following the death of her son Pedie Perez by the hands of a former Richmond police officer; Jan. 22

Joseph Bradley: The Serra High priest and football chaplain, lovingly known as Father Joe, chronicled his recovery from substance abuse in a 2012 memoir called “The Four Gifts”; Jan. 28

February

Michael Burawoy, 77: The UC Berkeley professor emeritus was considered a worldwide expert in the field of sociology; Feb. 3

Hans de Lannoy, 72: He was a Bay Area high school basketball coaching icon, winning more than 500 games over his six-decade career; Feb. 3

Dennis Richmond, 81: He was a legendary TV journalist at KTVU who broke racial barriers and later was considered one of the Bay Area’s most trusted anchors; Feb. 5

Clint Hill, 93: The longtime Marin County resident was the Secret Service agent who leaped onto the back of President John F. Kennedy’s limousine after the president was shot, then was forced to retire early because he remained haunted by memories of the assassination; Feb. 21

March

D’Wayne Wiggins, 64: The Oakland music legend reached platinum-plus heights as a founding member of the immensely popular R&B act Tony! Toni! Toné, then later worked as a producer with several notable artists; March 3

Art Schallock, 100: The Bay Area native was an MLB pitcher who once replaced Mickey Mantle on the New York Yankees’ roster; at the time of his death, he had been the oldest living former major leaguer; March 6

Jeffrey Bruce Klein, 77: The longtime Bay Area journalist was a founder and editor of Mother Jones magazine, a founder of West, the former Sunday magazine of the Mercury News, as well as a journalism professor at Stanford; March 13

Don Gage, 79: He spent more than 30 years in local politics, serving on the Gilroy City Council, as the city’s mayor and later on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors; March 25

Bob “Doc” Scott, 97: The Santa Cruz resident was a doctor and surgeon, but he was legendary in the surfing community, serving as a mentor to many and inventing the ubiquitous “Doc’s Proplugs”

Frank Taylor, 87: The former head of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency is credited as one of the most influential people in the redevelopment of the city’s downtown

April

Octavio Dotel, 51: The journeyman MLB pitcher played for 13 teams over 15 seasons, including a two-year stint with the Oakland A’s in the early 2000s; April 8

Robert Lozoff, 77: He was a bartender at Trident restaurant in Sausalito when he helped create the famed tequila sunrise cocktail in the 1970s; April 14

Barry Swenson, 85: He turned his family’s general contracting company into an award-winning design-build development company, and he helped to revive the struggling San Jose and Santa Cruz downtowns; April 19

Alcario Castellano, 90: He was a retired San Jose grocery clerk who turned his then-record $141 million lottery jackpot into a vehicle for philanthropy; April 26

Jeff Sperbeck, 62: He was a sports agent whose clients included 49ers stars Ronnie Lott and Roger Craig and Denver Broncos legend John Elway, and he co-owned 7Cellars, a winery based in Napa County, with Elway; April 30

May

Federal Glover, 69: The longtime Contra Costa politician served on the Pittsburg City Council and as the city’s mayor, and he later became the first Black member of the county’s Board of Supervisors; May 18

Hilding “Tex” Ronning, 89: He was a longtime teacher at Santa Cruz High School who also served as a beloved football and wrestling coach; May 22

June

Bill Atkinson, 74: He was a pioneering designer at Apple whose software made computers easier to for non-trained users to operate and “made the Macintosh possible”; June 5

Sly Stone, 82: The legendary Bay Area musician was the front man for the funk-rock-soul band Sly and the Family Stone, but his influence on artists in many genres still can be felt today; June 9

Kazuo “Kaz” Kajimura, 82: He got his start as the co-owner of a tiny Japanese restaurant and eventually turned that into the famed Oakland jazz venue Yoshi’s; June 15

Chandler Jones, 33: The former San Jose State football standout played in the Canadian Football League with the Montreal Alouettes, then later returned to SJSU as a coach; June 22

Dave Parker, 74: The Baseball Hall of Famer, nicknamed “The Cobra,” was a key part to the 1989 Oakland A’s team that beat the San Francisco Giants in the Bay Bridge World Series after years of starring with the Pittsburgh Pirates; June 28

July

Dan Siegel, 79: The longtime Oakland resident led the “Bloody Thursday” protest at People’s Park in Berkeley in 1969, then launched a career as a civil rights attorney; July 2

David Kaffinetti, 79: The keyboardist was a onetime member of the parody rock act Spinal Tap who then became a popular performer in the East Bay music scene; July 11

Martin Cruz Smith, 82: The former Marin County resident was an acclaimed mystery author whose best-selling books include “Gorky Park”; July 11

Bill Neukom, 83: The longtime San Francisco Giants executive was at the helm when the team won their first championship since moving to the West Coast in 2010; July 14

Wayne Thomas, 77: The former hockey goalie played eight NHL seasons before a launching a career as a coach and team executive that included more than two decades with the San Jose Sharks; July 16

“Papa Jake” Larson, 102: The Lafayette resident was a D-Day veteran who found fame late in life as he shared stories from World War II on TikTok on his account, “Story Time with Papa Jake”; July 17

Alex the Great, 4: The beloved therapy bunny got his start with the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park, then appeared at such venues as NBA arenas, airports, farmers markets, Easter egg hunts and NASCAR races; July 21

Tom Lehrer, 97: He was a much-loved song satirist whose work appeared in TV programs and stage shows, but he later pivoted to teaching mathematics at UC Santa Cruz and other universities; July 27

Toft Jessen, 104: The highly decorated D-Day veteran once played baseball for the New York Yankees before joining the Oakland Police Department, where he was considered an inspiration for decades after leaving the force; July 28

August

Randy Moffitt, 76: The noted relief pitcher with the San Francisco Giants, a member of the team’s inaugural Wall of Fame, also was the brother of tennis legend Billie Jean King; Aug. 28

John Cummings, 58: The longtime South Bay resident was the original drummer for the acclaimed San Jose rock act The Odd Numbers; Aug. 29

September

Bruce Loose, 66: The San Francisco musician was the bassist and singer with the punk band Flipper, which influenced Nirvana, Melvins, Jane’s Addiction and other acts, Sept. 5

John Burton, 92: The longtime Democratic lawmaker from San Francisco served both in Washington and Sacramento, and nurtured countless political careers, including that of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Sept. 7

Bob Milano, 85: The Oakland native was a Cal baseball legend, starring at the university as a catcher before becoming the Golden Bears’ winningest coach; Sept. 15

George Smoot, 80: He was a Nobel laureate who researched the universe’s origins during a long career at UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Sept. 18

Belva Davis, 92: She was a pioneering journalist, working on Bay Area radio before becoming the first Black TV female reporter on the West Coast when she joined KPIX-TV in 1966, then later moving to KRON-TV and KQED; Sept. 24

Sara Jane Moore, 95: She tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford in San Francisco in 1975, then served most of her sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin before being unexpectedly paroled in 2007; Sept. 24

October

Sam Sebastiani, 84: He was a member of an influential wine family in Sonoma County who worked at the family’s Sebastiani Vineyards before later founding Viansa Winery; Oct. 6

Larry Williams, 62: The former offensive lineman played in eight NFL seasons, then later served an athletic director at several schools before taking the same job at the University of San Francisco; Oct. 16

Mike Doyle, 96: The longtime Danville resident served as a town official for 25 years, including six terms as a councilman and five times as mayor; Oct. 19

Daniel Naroditsky, 29: The chess grandmaster, who grew up in Foster City and attended Stanford, ran an online chess platform and worked as a frequent commentator and chess coach; Oct. 19

Bill Patterson, 94: The civil rights leader was a three-term president of the Oakland chapter of the NAACP and was the first Black president of the board for the East Bay Municipal Utility District; Oct. 21

Carol Davis, 93: She was considered the First Lady of Raider Nation, and with son Mark took over ownership of the Oakland Raiders after husband Al died in 2011; Oct. 24

George Atkinson, 78: He was a member of the Oakland Raiders’ famed “Soul Patrol,” a hard-hitting defensive backfield that terrorized the NFL in the 1970s, then later served on the Raiders’ announcing team; Oct. 27

November

Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, 78: She was a longtime Bay Area singer who performed with the Grateful Dead in 1970s, and collaborated with such artists as Elvis Presley, Cher and Percy Sledge; Nov. 2

Victor Conte, 75: The founder of the notorious BALCO company was at the heart of the biggest sports scandal in U.S. history in the early 2000s, which ensnared MLB stars, NFL players and Olympic medalists; Nov. 3

Micheal Ray Richardson, 70: The former Golden State Warriors guard played in the NBA for eight years but was banned in 1986 after violating the league’s drug policy; Nov. 11

Robert Stirm, 92: The longtime Bay Area resident had been a prisoner of war in Vietnam and was seen reuniting with his family at Travis Air Force Base in 1973 in the famed “Burst of Joy” photo; Nov. 11

John Beam, 66: The legendary Oakland football coach, who later became athletic director at Laney College, was beloved for helping countless student athletes find their footing; Nov. 14

Alice Wong, 51: The San Francisco resident was an advocate who fought for greater accessibility and accommodations for people with disabilities; Nov. 14

December

Claude, 30: The rare albino alligator was a beloved figure at the Cal Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and he was considered an unofficial mascot of the museum and the city; Dec. 2

Stephen Cassidy, 61: He was a public official in San Leandro, serving as a trustee for the San Leandro Unified School District, on the San Leandro City Council and later as the city’s mayor; Dec. 5

Frank Gehry, 96: He designed some of most imaginative buildings ever constructed, including Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, and achieved a level of worldwide acclaim seldom afforded any architect; Dec. 5.

Paul Wiggin, 91: The Stanford football legend was a All-American defensive lineman for the Cardinal in the 1950s, then served as the team’s head coach for three seasons, including during the infamous 1982 “The Play” game vs. Cal; Dec. 12

Mike White, 89: He was a longtime football coach who connected with nearly every team in the Bay Area — including Cal, Stanford, the Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers — among others during his career; Dec. 14

Associated Press and CNN Wire Services contributed to this report.