"Steve was our Siri."

[Remarks at my father's memorial from his cousin Marcia, who still lives in Baltimore. Listen here.]

The last time I saw Steve was in the spring of last year, when we gathered together to remember our aunt E.T., who had passed away in January of 2015. He reminded me then that I now was the matriarch of our family, like I had to know. Little did I imagine at that time that I would be attending his memorial so soon after. I knew Steve before he was born, when his mother, my aunt Esther, was pregnant. Born in DC, he lived in Parkchester, New York as a young child with Esther and his dad Eddie. They moved to Takoma Park, Maryland, where Judith joined the family. As a baby we called Steve "Porky," because his hair always stood straight up in the air like a porcupine. He was always very precocious, and we never knew what would come out of his mouth. His mom used to tell us this story, that when she first visited him at an open house in kindergarten, he introduced his teacher as, "This is the lady I told you looks just like a mouse." Years later, when the family moved to Baltimore, the Scherrs lived not far from our family and we spent a lot of time together. Steve was always brilliant, but not the easiest of teenagers. He won a National Merit Scholarship at Johns Hopkins University, but preferred playing pool or bridge to attending classes. He left Hopkins, worked at Bethlehem Steel for a while, returned to Hopkins for a while, and then enlisted in the army. He thought this would be a good opportunity for him to travel and to see the world. But this was not to be. After taking an aptitude test, he scored so high that he was placed in army intelligence. Much to his disappointment, he remained at Fort Holabird [in Baltimore] as an instructor his entire time in the service. It was here that he first whet his appetite for studying law as a career. Most of you here today know where that interest took him, and how well he succeeded in his field here in San Francisco. And to the family back in Baltimore, Steve was our Siri. If E.T. or I had a question about movies, literature, just about anything, we'd call him and get the answer immediately. He was very especially close to my sister Linda. She was the only cousin she invited to her sweet sixteen party, and through the years they remained best of friends. When he visited us in recent years in Baltimore, he would stay with Linda and watch old movies until all hours. Linda is so sorry she was unable to be here today, she deeply misses Steve. There are so many, many things I could say about this special man - his intellect, his wit, his humor - but most of you are already aware of them. The one thing that stands out so much for me was his love and devotion to his family: his wife Jean, his daughter Rachel, son-in-law Dale, grandsons Jordan and Aaron, sister Judith and her wife Deena, his mom Esther and his dad Eddie. As a child and a young man he gave his mother a rough time, but in later years he showed her such love and admiration it brought much unexpected joy to her life. It's hard for me to think of Steve in the past tense. He will always be alive in my heart.