Harold Charns, 74, passed away September 9, 2023.  He is survived by his wife Rose Schubert, his sisters Eve Clark and Marcia Reynolds, his brother David Charns, and 3 nieces and nephews. 

   Harold was born on December 7, 1948 in Phoenix, Arizona.  He graduated from West Phoenix High School in 1966, earned a bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University, and a Master’s in City Planning at the University of California, Berkely. 

    In 1974 he bought a house in San Francisco, which was his home ever since.  For the first decade or so he shared the large house with many colorful roommates, as many as ten at a time.  One of those roommates was Rose, with whom he fell in love.  Gradually the house became just theirs, filled with thousands of bromeliads, orchids and other plants, also chickens and sometimes ducks and goldfish in the large back yard, always a cat or two, sometimes finches in one of their numerous greenhouses.  Harold was particularly fond of bromeliads.  He was an active member of the San Francisco Bromeliad Society for over 40 years, holding offices including president and treasurer.

    Harold worked hard all his life.  In his early years in the Bay Area he worked for consulting firms, managing projects ranging from a review of the Seattle public library system to a study on alcoholism in Japanese Americans.  Later he focused on database design and support for various entities, including regional transit systems and the federal courts.

    Harold loved the city of San Francisco, its varied cultures, including of course, the food, particularly Thai and other Asian cuisines.  More than anything, he and Rose loved their home, where they could sit on their deck, looking down over their garden and out over the valley of their corner of the city.  Harold’s final years were troubled by frontotemporal dementia, but he never lost his love for Rose, his home, and his life in San Francisco.

Submitted by ~ Peter Sownie WPHS, Class of "67