Here's a story that is Total SF, connecting a Muni operator with San Francisco transit riders and City College and showing how acts of kindness multiply and make long-lasting difference.
Eunice Lew, a retiree from teaching immigrants at City College of SF, showed me an article about a wonderful Muni driver, Alan Brown, who appeared in a SF Examiner article in 1999.
Eunice was also mentioned in the article, and when I asked, "Whatever happened to this beloved Muni operator?" she told me a very touching story I thought would be of interest to you.
With his permission, back in 1999, she recorded his voice as he took people through SF streets and brought the recordings to class at the Chinatown/NorthBeach campus, where she taught both because they were learning the streets with numbers that he called out (34th Avenue, for example) at the same time that they were seeing how friendly and helpful he was, this Black man, who represented a race her students sometimes feared.
A year or so ago, deep in retirement, when she was going through things she needed to discard, she didn't want to throw the cassettes away, so she decided to contact his family so they could have that as part of his legacy. You'll have to ask her how she found his wife, but she did, and now the wife has the cassettes and, apparently, a way to listen to them and share them with others. She also told Eunice that he had had cancer back in the days when he was being so welcoming to every one and really making their day. He died in 2003.
Later, in response to my questions to Eunice, here's what she wrote:
Stored with Alan's recorded cassettes, there was a letter from Alan thanking me for praising him at a City Hall award ceremony with Mayor Dianne Feinstein. Going by his return address, I found out that his S.F. home near Stonestown had been sold. End of the trail -- how can I find him? I tried searching online with the name of his wife Arlene Brown who I met at the ceremony. Their daughter has an uncommon name "Niya". But I didn't get far with "people search" sites. A friend with better computer skills found an Arlene Brown with Niya in Louisville, Kentucky. I called the number and sure enough, Niya answered and put her mom on. Arlene still remembers me. She was really excited to hear about my plan for shipping her the cassette tapes so Alan's memories will be available for their family history collection. What a joy that would be for a grandkid to personally experience Grandpa Alan come to life and share the fun that he brought to so many people. A different twist on the contemporary "bring your child to work day" -- becoming "bring Grandpa at work home".
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Riding-with-Muni-s-man-from-glad-3238334.php
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