Glady Thacher made the world a better place

“Ah, what a gift to our world she was.” 

By FRAN MORELAND JOHNS

Glady Thacher — beloved neighbor, community organizer and force for good — was summed up in those words by a longtime member of one of the “trust circles” she was fond of launching when she spotted a need. Like the larger public projects she launched, the trust circles offered innovative ways to address big issues by starting with small, creative beginnings.

Glady Thacher died earlier this month at 95, at home, at peace, exactly as she had wished. Having invested almost a century in showing us how to live better lives by helping others, and how to get things done, she wrapped up her own long life by demonstrating how to die. 

En route to that peaceful ending, Glady Thacher was one of this community’s most effective instigators of beginnings. Always optimistic, she connected people. From her big living room on Washington Street, she first launched Enterprise for High School Students, which still helps young people find jobs and opportunities. Soon after Enterprise came Alumnae Resources, which evolved into Lifeprint, to provide counseling for women (and later men, too) entering the workforce.

After Lifeprint came the San Francisco Ed (for Education) Fund, which is still providing critical financial and volunteer support for public schools in the city. And then, in 2009, she launched San Francisco Village, now a community of more than 650 members and several hundred volunteers helping seniors live at home and stay connected as they age. 

“She was always there with new ideas, and for support,” said Kate Hoepke, who recently retired after 13 years as executive director of SF Village. Hundreds of others would say the same.

There were other nonprofits she launched in her Washington Street living room that reach far beyond San Francisco — notably Ploughshares Fund, now a leader in the ongoing effort to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons around the globe.

In our community, her legacy comes full circle back to the trust circles she created. Sometimes a circle grew into a walking group, or a book group, or an activist group. Always it was, at heart, simply a group of people who trusted each other — and, increasingly, themselves. Like the bigger and more ambitious projects, the small groups Glady Thacher was fond of creating began with one friend reaching out to another. 

We were lucky Glady Thacher lived in our neighborhood, our city, our time.

EARLIER: “The Founder”

OBITUARY: Gladys S. Thacher (1929-2025)