Ms. Fergusson said she met her future husband while taking his Unix computer programming class at Stanford University, where he was a teaching fellow and she was an engineering student. They were both fans of The Grateful Dead and often attended the same concerts, she said.
Mr. Zeien was a native of Montana and took up the guitar early, Ms. Fergusson said. Math was another interest of his and he went on to acquire bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. He considered pursuing a doctorate, but settled into a job as a "cyber-security expert" for Stanford, she said.
He played sports as a kid and focused on baseball as an adult, including as a coach for Menlo-Atherton Little League, which plays some of its games at Holbrook-Palmer Park. He served on the Little League board and as the league's liaison to the Positive Coaching Alliance, and coordinated field maintenance. He also kept score for the local Babe Ruth team and for the semi-pro Menlo Park Legends.
Mr. Zeien was also the scorekeeper for the junior varsity baseball team at Menlo-Atherton High School and would write game summaries every week for the Bearnotes school newsletter. "He was a very talented writer," Ms. Fergusson said. "He just made every kid shine."
While he avoided the spotlight, he was a supportive husband when his wife entered local politics as a member of the City Council, Ms. Fergusson said. "He was proud of the difference I was able to make," she said.
As a musician, Mr. Zeien trained in jazz but played bluegrass with the Stony Mountain Ramblers, a group made up of two dads from Menlo Park, three from Palo Alto and one from Los Gatos, Ms. Fergusson said. They'd practice on Sunday nights after the children were in bed, she said.
The band was a regular at the Moms and Babes neighborhood parties in the Willows neighborhood and at farmers' markets in Menlo Park and Palo Alto, Ms. Fergusson said.
Mr. Zeien liked kayaking and hiking, an activity the family took part in throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains and in at least 30 of the nation's 60 national parks, Ms. Fergusson said. His collection of bottles of Christmas ale from Anchor Steam Brewing Company is a complete set, she said.
Mr. Zeien is survived by his wife; his daughter, Grace Laurel Fergusson; his son, Albert "Elliot" Zeien; his mother, Shirley Zeien of Broomfield, Colorado; his sisters, Candy Ewell of Honolulu, Carol Tingley of Westminster, Colorado, and Cathy Dubois of Akron, Ohio; and his extended family.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Sempervirens Fund at sempervirens.org to protect redwood forests.
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