Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 04:54:20 :
Independent Journal
Friday, May 16, 1952
Page 7
Mark L. Gerstle, 86, Dies
Mark Lewis Gerstle, 86, who spent many of his early years in San Rafael and joined with members of his family in 190 (sic) to donate the family estate as a San Rafael city park, died yesterday in San Francisco.
The retired business leader and capitalist succumbed peacefully. Death was due to a heart condition.
Among the survivors is a grandson, Mark L. Gerstle III, Oakland radio executive who lives at 2015 Fifth avenue, San Rafael.
The elder Gerstle was a son of Lewis and Hanna Gerstle, who came to Marin county in the 1880s and bought the estate today known as Gerstle park.
In 1930, the elder Mark Gerstle and his brother, William, and their sisters, Mrs. J. B. Levison and Mrs. Mortimer Fleischhacker, gave the six-acre park tract to the city. Its caretaker, Cesare Bettini, was long employed by the Gerstle family and recalls their summer sojourns in Marin.
Born in San Francisco, the deceased capitalist attended grammar and high schools in the Bay City. He was graduated magna cum laude from Harvard university in 1889 and a year later received his doctorate of laws from Harvard law school.
He then launched an impressive legal and business career which included land, fishing, farming, and commercial interests. He was a vice president of the Emporium, downtown San Francisco store.
He was an officer during World War I and later was an assistant to the secretary of war in charge of training camps in the west.
After returning to civilian life he became a director in a score of corporations. He established the Home Telephone Company, first dial telephone firm in San Francisco.
His first wife, Mrs. Hilda Hecht Gerstle, died in 1934. The following year he married Genevieve Mills Gerstle, who survives him.
Also surviving are a son, Dr. Mark Lewis Gerstle Jr., a psychiatrist practicing in New York; a daughter, Mrs. Louise Alice Stahl of New York; and two sisters, Mrs. J. B. Levison and Mrs. Mortimer Fleishhacker. There are six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held this afternoon in San Francisco with interment in Home of Peace Memorial park, Colma.
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