Second woman county supervisor dies at 99

Throughout her tenure on the Board of Supervisors from 1965 to 1976, Fassler served alongside four other men with a collegial, thoughtful attitude that made it very easy to get along with her, said former supervisor John Ward. Having been elected to the board in 1974, Ward remembered the longtime Pacifica resident’s focus on preserving open space on San Bruno Mountain and the balance in perspectives she helped foster amongst her colleagues.

“I just think that it was really important to have her voice on the board,” he said. “There’s moments when temperaments come into play as you get into tough decision-making processes and she always maintained her calm.”

Having attended board meetings during Fassler’s tenure, Lennie Roberts with the Committee for Green Foothills remembered how Fassler’s authenticity and preparation for the wide array of topics discussed on the dais captivated not only her fellow board members but also her community, which had yet to see many women pursue public office.

“What I remember was, here was this woman in a man’s world,” she said. “She always was a lady, she was smart, she was fun and she actually managed to get a lot of things done.”

In addition to Fassler’s paving a way for women, Roberts counted Fassler’s commitment to keeping the county’s highways scenic as among the first glimmers of environmental awareness in the county. Roberts could also recall the pride she felt in seeing a Pacifica resident serve at the national level on the Citizens Advisory Committee on Recreation and Natural Beauty, which Fassler was appointed to by President Lyndon Johnson.

For her daughter Lynn Fassler, her mother’s ability to manage her time on the some 18 committees she served on as a county supervisor and in contributing to a wide range of discussions as the first mayor of the newly-incorporated Pacifica was a feat in and of itself, especially since she was very devoted to her family.

Attentive listener, hard worker

Whether it was finding time to go to her school plays or attending the accordion concerts of one of her two sons, Fassler was an attentive listener and trusted her children to make decisions for themselves, said Lynn Fassler. Even though some of her meetings might go late into the evening, her mother would prepare meals ahead of them and freeze them so her family would have something to eat for dinner.

Lynn Fassler could remember trying to find her mother on a Sunday one afternoon in high school and finding her in the quiet of her car studying for upcoming meetings, noting that was not an uncommon occurrence given how well she prepared for meetings. Having moved from Sacramento to San Francisco to become a dental assistant as a young woman, Fassler might not have imagined she would serve her community on so many levels when she started her career, but her attentiveness to others and the issues her community was facing made her a natural fit in the public realm, said Lynn Fassler.

“She was always a lady throughout her whole public service,” she said. “She was always appropriately dressed, she always found an easy way to get things done. … She just wore all the different hats.”

Lynn Fassler said her mother met her father, Joseph Fassler, while she was working as a dental assistant and they lived together in what she called “the shack on the beach” in Pacifica, where they later built a home for their family. She said her mother was one among 26 candidates who ran for Pacifica City Council in 1957, just after the city was incorporated, and was the top vote-getter in the election, a feat that earned her the role of the city’s first mayor.

Because she hadn’t attended a city council meeting before, Fassler attended meetings in Daly City to learn how to conduct them in her Pacifica, which was going through the growing pains of becoming a new community. From forming a new community in Pacifica to serving on a committee advising the president alongside Laurance Rockefeller, an astronaut and other officials, Fassler was known to have made an impression on almost everyone she met, said Lynn Fassler.

Fassler’s daughter-in-law Vida Santos could remember the first time she met Fassler while she was working for the Pacifica Tribune as a widowed, single mother. Santos could recall the moment when Fassler walked into the office to be interviewed by the newspaper’s editor, lighting up the room with her charm and warmth.

“She came in as mayor and introduced herself and I just immediately liked her,” she said.

Santos would meet and eventually marry Fassler’s oldest son, the late Walfred Fassler, a few weeks later, and said they shared many of the same characteristics, including a high-achieving mindset and devotion to their families.

Commitment to community

For her son Greg Fassler, it was his mother’s commitment to serving her community that left a lasting impression on his career. Having earned a master’s degree in public administration and worked for several cities and counties in the Peninsula as a management analyst and in fleet management, Greg Fassler said his interest in government stemmed from his mother’s active civic life.

Though he acknowledged how important her example was for the community, Greg Fassler emphasized how devoted she was to her family, always willing to listen to her children and support them.

“There was never a time when she was too busy to give attention to the kids,” she said. “She was always supportive of what I was going to do in life.”

Now a consultant assisting cities and counties in vehicle and equipment purchases and maintenance, Greg Fassler could remember what it was like to grow up with his mother as mayor of his hometown, noting a photographer from Life magazine photographed his family when he was 10 years old, shortly after his mother was elected to the Pacifica City Council. Though there were not a lot of women in politics when she was first elected, Fassler inspired women to pursue offices in local and county government, Greg Fassler added, noting U.S. representatives Jackie Speier and Anna Eshoo were elected to the Board of Supervisors not long after his mother’s tenure.

‘Dignified and persistent example’

For her part, Speier noted Fassler was a first in San Mateo County to prove that some leaders are born women. Acknowledging the county Board of Supervisors tended to have a focus on the southern portion of the county in the late 1970s, Speier remembered how hard Fassler fought for the northern portion of the county with a combination of gentility and firmness.

“She led by dignified and persistent example,” she said in an email. “It’s appropriate that there is a long street in Pacifica that climbs to the stars and that it’s named after her. No one would dare name a cul-de-sac after Jean Fassler.”

Jean Frances Fassler was born June 7, 1919, in Quincy to Della and Charlie Thomas and died Nov. 18 at her home in Grass Valley. She is survived by son Gregory and his wife Susan, daughter Lynn Fassler and her husband Charles Sternberg, daughter-in-law Vida Santos, grandchildren Kristy Fassler, Kathy Fassler, Ken Fassler, Karen Fassler and Kevin Fassler. Fassler is also survived by great grandchildren Joseph Gillespie, Jacob Gillespie, Rachel Gillespie, Ruth Gillespie and Benjamin Hecht. She is preceded in death by Joseph Fassler, her husband of 63 years and her eldest son, Walfred J. Fassler.

A memorial service for Jean Frances Fassler will be 1:30 p.m. Jan. 6, in Nevada City at the Sierra Presbyterian Church, 175 Ridge Road. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Hospice of the Foothills.

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Note to readers: This story has been changed to reflect that it was discovered after the story was published that Fassler was not the first woman to serve on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors. The first woman to serve on the board was Rosalie Brown, who was appointed upon the death of her husband, William Brown, in 1920. She went on to be elected two times on her own.