Joan B. Tieman

October 12, 1932 - September 1, 2018

A life-long resident of Mill Valley, Ms. Tieman attended Park School where Edna McGuire, her first grade teacher, taught her the Pledge of Allegiance. She graduated from Tamalpais High School in 1950, and subsequently earned BA degrees in both Spanish and Art from Dominican College. In 1958, she landed an administrative position with the United States Information Agency, and went overseas to work prestigious assignments in Greece, Pakistan, and Mexico.

In 1963, she returned to her roots in Mill Valley, where her mother Ann and father Ralph (once the town’s mayor) owned Tamalpais Hardware on Miller Avenue for 40 years. Ms. Tieman then worked in Marin County’s new Civic Center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Her last position before retirement was at Bechtel Corporation in San Francisco where former Secretary of State George Shultz was President and Director of its Board. A charter member of the Mill Valley Tennis Club (she played the sport competitively) and a breast cancer survivor, Ms. Tieman was also a music enthusiast who enjoyed everything from Bach to Bob Dylan. With Joan Tieman go fond memories of a much more modest Mill Valley. “I was lucky to experience those days,” she remembered. “We knew all of our neighbors, walked everywhere, and stopped to talk to people on the street. Today everyone is virtually a stranger on the street, concentrating on their cell phones.”

Ms. Tieman was also part of a growing trend among seniors to participate in the writing of their own obituaries. “I grew up on obituaries,” she said. “My father used to call that part of the paper the Irish sports section. When I go, I want people who knew me to say, look, Joan died. Didn’t she go to Park Elementary?”

She is survived by her beloved dog, Lucy, and her long-time significant other, Emmett T. Hegarty of San Francisco. Ms. Tieman chose cremation.