John D. Hickman of San Francisco, CA passed away surrounded by his family on July 1, 2022. He was 79 years old.
He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Adrienne Hickman, his sister and her husband Gail and Gary Burns and their family, his children Winifred McGeorge, Amanda Hickman, and Oliver Hickman, their partners Uwe Willenbacher and Noah Budnick, and his grandsons Hamish and Caden.
A celebration of his life was on Saturday, August 27.
Donations in John’s memory may be made to the ACLU or the National Lawyers Guild.
Born in Rochester, Minnesota to Julia and John S. Hickman, John graduated from Point Loma High School in San Diego, received his BA from UC Berkeley before going to law school.
He attended Hastings College of Law in the late 1960s for three years, which were interrupted while he performed his Alternative Service as a conscientious objector through the Glide Foundation. Glide placed him with San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation, where served the Tenderloin and South of Market.
In 1973, John formed a law partnership with Howard De Nike, a former colleague at Neighborhood Legal Assistance. That same year Adrienne and Winnie moved in with him on Parnassus — Adrienne and John married in the fall of 1975, shortly before Amanda was born. He adopted Winnie the following year. In 1978 Oliver arrived and made for a family of five.
John was an avid birder before he had children, though he quickly discovered that bird watching was incompatible with young children. Nonetheless, he never went for a hike without his bird book and binoculars and at least one tree finder, and he did eventually spot an elusive California Condor.
There was not a summer when John and Adrienne didn’t take the family camping, exploring National Parks across the western United States. The family visited the Navajo Nation and Hopi Pueblos. Every trip started with John declaring that there was no way to fit everything and Adrienne assuring him that it would all fit. It always fit.
During his lengthy legal career John successfully litigated damage claims arising from police violence following the announcement of Dan White’s lenient sentence for the killing of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
He also represented the plaintiff in Guerrero v. Secretary of the Army, which vindicated the veteran’s status of a Filipino man who had joined the American forces resisting the Japanese during WWII. The Filipino men who enlisted were promised veterans benefits, but the Army refused to honor that promise.
John served for many years on the San Francisco Bar Association’s committee overseeing the Lawyer Referral Service.
As his children set off on their own lives, John and Adrienne began to explore Europe and the British Isles. They also visited New York City often while Amanda was living there.
John was a dedicated volunteer with the Sutro Stewards where he proudly stewarded many construction projects. He was also an active member of the Bay Area Woodworkers Association and indispensable to the San Francisco Quilters Guild biannual quilt shows where he built quilt frames, hung quilts, and generally helped out.
We miss him, dearly.