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Mary Catherine “Nancy” Gonzalez, a Woodside resident instrumental in organizing town cleanup days, died March 27 in Burlingame after a short illness. She was 84.
Growing up in Palo Alto, she attended Palo Alto High School and the Convent of the Sacred Heart. She met Richard Gonzalez at the University of Colorado and they married in 1945.
The couple settled in Woodside, where they raised four children. Dr. Gonzalez died in 1993.
Ms. Gonzalez actively participated in conservation efforts in Woodside, including helping to organize the town’s cleanup days. In the wake of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, she was “the first person” in Northern California to adopt a highway through the California Transportation Department’s program, according to her family.
She raised funds to install two tennis courts at Woodside Elementary School for the use of students and the public. The loves of her life included her family, her dogs, her art, her books and her friends. “She was always ready to laugh,” family members said.
Ms. Gonzalez was generous in her support of San Francisco public broadcasting station KQED and the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.
She is survived by daughters Leah Leavy of Burlingame and Catherine O’Brien of Pals, Spain; sons Steven of Omaha, Nebraska, and Victor of San Francisco; eight grandchildren; four great grandchildren; and brother William of Phoenix.
There are no plans for services. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations be made in Ms. Gonzalez’s name to the Woodside Community Landscaping Foundation, P.O. Box 620404 in Woodside, 94062.