Saturday, July 30, 2022
I worked with Lynn at the San Francisco SPCA in the early nineties, until my family and I relocated to North Carolina in 1995. At the time I joined, the Public Information & Media offices were located in a cramped but atmospheric warren of offices tucked into the 2nd floor facing 16th Street. We were next door to the dog kennels, so as we worked writing copy for SFSPCA programs and services, featuring adoptable cats and dogs, we were never out of earshot from our material! Ours was a busy office but an extraordinarily tight-knit one. Lynn was the glue in our unit: as Media Director she fostered a spirit of cohesiveness and creativity in our small community while tackling formidable challenges in the SFSPCA's mission to save the lives of animals in San Francisco and surrounding regions. Setting up the first full-service Doggy DayCare on the West Coast was one such ground-breaking project -- we loved working on that one, and it attracted press by the busload - and there were many more campaigns that kept us intensely busy, with no one busier than Lynn. She was hardworking, absolutely. She was talented, clearly. But what made her exceptional in my eyes were her qualities as a co-worker, a boss, and, ultimately, a friend: her generosity, empathy, loyalty and equanimity. We need more people in the world like Lynn Spivak. I miss her and value the time I was privileged to spend with her. God bless, Lynn.
