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Friday November 30, 2007

Joby Shinoff, longtime j. staffer, dies at 60

by dan pine
staff writer

The other day, Holly Shinoff took her dog, Lily, for a walk through her Noe Valley neighborhood. She didn’t get far. Every few feet, teary-eyed neighbors and shopkeepers approached her to express their grief.

That’s because her husband, Joby, had died a few days before, the shock of his loss still so sharp that colleagues, family and friends couldn’t believe he was gone.

John “Joby” Shinoff died Nov. 19 of complications from multiple myeloma. He was 60.

For nearly 22 years, Shinoff worked at j. as an ad sales representative. He was dearly loved by his co-workers, and by his many clients as well.

“He had a very gentle sales demeanor,” said j. Associate Publisher Nora Contini. “He was persistent but not pushy. That perception carried through the years. Clients have said what a kind, professional person he was.”

Shinoff’s newspaper career was only one aspect of a life well lived.

He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, in a secular household that was rich in Jewish culture. Music became an important part of his life early on, and when he moved to Chicago as a young man, the music went with him.

“When he was young, he got really interested in Pete Seeger and the other folkies,” noted Holly Shinoff. “He got a guitar, sang in some groups, and got interested in soul and blues.”

By then he had married his first wife, Debbie, with whom he had a daughter, Amy. In Chicago, Shinoff found employment as a truck driver and factory worker. After his marriage ended in the late 1970s, he returned to Southern California to work in his father’s clothing business, which he took over after his father’s death.

A few years later, he relocated to the Bay Area, where his brother, the late Paul Shinoff, worked as a reporter for the S.F. Examiner and the Chronicle. With a goal of expanding the family’s business, Shinoff settled into his new Noe Valley neighborhood to get to work.

Fate had other plans for him.

After a bad health scare with a pulmonary embolism, Shinoff applied for a job selling ads at the Jewish Bulletin. That was in March 1986, and he remained with the newspaper from then on.

In 1991, Shinoff needed a new roommate at his Church Street apartment. One of the applicants, Holly Wake, wasn’t sure about sharing space with a man she didn’t know, but in short order she realized she liked her new roomie.

“He was really warm, intelligent and funny,” she recalled. “We ended up at the kitchen table talking for hours. That’s when we knew something was happening.”

After an early date, they walked together to the home they shared. “The chemistry was strong, and it wasn’t long before we were falling in love,” Holly recounted.

The two married in 1991 and set about building a life together. Hiking the hills of Marin, singing the blues in all-night living room jams, entertaining friends and doing the New York Times crossword puzzle (in ink) added up to life rich with love and possibilities.

“He was like a resource,” his wife said. “He had an incredible memory, remembering people’s names and how they were connected. Politically, he had a real depth of intelligence.”

In recent years, his activism crystallized in an effort to develop a dog park at the Upper Noe Recreation Center.

“Joby loved dogs,” Holly Shinoff said. “Joby was responsible with a friend for creating the dog park. He went out by himself with a petition and got 500 people to sign it. Because of him the dog park was created. He fought hard for the space.”

Shinoff’s daughter, Amy, owns an inn in Venice, Italy. He and Holly loved to visit her. “Joby adored Amy,” said Holly. “He lit up each time she walked into the room.”

In 2003, Shinoff was diagnosed with myeloma. He underwent months of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. It worked for a few years, but he suffered a relapse in 2006. He beat that, too, and returned to the pleasures of life.

Thanks in part to his connection with j., Shinoff also renewed his interest in Judaism. He and his wife took classes at S.F.’s Congregation Emanu-El, and enjoyed celebrating the Jewish holidays.

Last summer, complications from the original illness and its treatments led to progressive respiratory symptoms, and by September, Shinoff was hospitalized. But his attitude remained typically upbeat.

“He was so positive,” said Holly. “He wanted to live, and there was a determination and tenacity beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Everyone noticed it.”

During his up-and-down weeks in the ICU, a steady stream of visitors cheered Shinoff. The floor nurse managed to clear the way for one special visitor, Shinoff’s beloved dog Lily, who pawed her way past protocol to sit at her human companion’s feet. In the end, the illness proved too much.

“He was very real,” summed up Holly Shinoff. “There was not a false note in that man.”

Joby Shinoff is survived by his wife, Holly Shinoff of San Francisco, and his daughter, Amy Bonvini of Venice, Italy. Contributions in memory of Joby may be made to the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, 3330 Geary Blvd., 3rd Floor West, San Francisco CA 94118 or the UCSF Cancer Research Institute, UCSF Box 0248, San Francisco CA 94143-0248.

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