Falk, Adrien Joseph, 1884-1971.

Biography

Adrien J. Falk was born December 9, 1884 in San Francisco. After attending John Swett Grammar School and completing one year at Lowell High School, he left school to take a job as errand boy for a liquor wholesaler. In 1905 he found employment with the wholesale grocery firm of Sussman, Wormser and Company, as S & W was then known, as a billing clerk. He became, in turn, assistant bookkeeper, cashier, credit manager, officer manager, secretary, sales manager, general manager, director, vice-president (in 1930) and president (in 1946). During this period he saw the transition of S & W from a small wholesale grocery business to a leading packer and distributor of canned foods. Retiring from the presidency in 1956, he continued to serve the Company as a consultant.

Mr. Falk continued his interrupted education with classes at the University of California Extension Division, specializing in accounting, business law and office management, and public speaking. He received an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of San Francisco in 1953, and served as a Regents Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1958.

Strongly imbued with a sense of civic responsibility, he had an active career in public service also. Even a partial list of activities in this field testifies to his efforts: president of the San Francisco and the California State Chambers of Commerce; president and member of the San Francisco Board of Education; president of the San Francisco Community Chest; president of the San Francisco Board of Trade; chairman of the Conference for the Problems of the Aging (1951); member of the Board of Governors, Bay Area Council; member of the Advisory Council on Social Security for the U. S. Senate Finance Committee; and president of the Mount Zion Hospital. His long and distinguished career was climaxed by his service as director and president of the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, a public service he embarked upon in 1957 at the age of 73.

He received many honors, among them a distinguished service award from the Bay Area Council; the Robert C. Kirkwood Award for significant contribution to the community life of Northern California; and the Urban Transportation Award, presented by the Second International Conference on Urban Transportation. For his many contributions to community welfare, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors proclaimed January 17, 1970, "Adrien J. Falk Day."

Mr. Falk died in San Francisco, April 14, 1971.

From the guide to the Adrien Joseph Falk Papers, [ca. 1973-1971], (The Bancroft Library)