Heidi Strassburger

Heidi Ann Strassburger passed away on September 17, 2008 at the Bruns House, Hospice of the East Bay in Alamo, California. She is survived by her partner of nearly 27 years, Angela Bean, and their children Damian and Hannah. Heidi is also survived by her loving parents, Diane and Willard Strassburger, her brother, Paul Strassburger and sister-in-law, Marina Strassburger, Erik and Kevin. Her other loving in laws include Margaret and James Capell, Lillian and Gwendolyn. In Wisconsin Heidi leaves her Aunt Elaine and late Uncle Harvey Strassburger, Aunt Lorna and Uncle Doug VanDeWater along with five loving cousins, John, Mark, Sarah, David, and Linda.

Heidi was born in Delavan, Wisconsin and grew up in Des Plaines Illinois. She attended the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, and earned her law degree at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts. For several years Heidi was a staff attorney at the Child Care Law Center in San Francisco. She advised various for-profit and non-profit child care programs on legal issues including corporations, contracts, zoning, liability, insurance, state subsidies, licensing and housing discrimination. She engaged in advocacy efforts to increase the amount of affordable, quality child care available to the general public; spoke publicly, conducted workshops and presented testimony at the local, state and national levels; developed and wrote educational materials, publications and funding proposals.

In 1992 Heidi sought an LL.M. in tax at Golden Gate University School of Law and subsequently worked for the Internal Revenue Service where she spent five years as an Estate and Gift Tax attorney.

Most recently Heidi was the Director of Tax, Legal and Regulatory Affairs at Kaspick & Company where she participated on the Senior Management Committee; provided counsel to internal operations and consulting services to clients on trust, fiduciary and tax issues related to trust and annuity administration services. Additionally, in conjunction with the Director of Tax Compliance, she took responsibility for tax compliance and supervised preparation of annual tax returns and provided consulting services to clients on legal, tax and best practice issues related to structuring charitable gifts.

Prior to working at Keswick, from 1999 until 2006 Heidi was Associate Director of Planned Giving at the University of California, San Francisco, where she cultivated and solicited major gift prospects, drafted endowed fund and other gift agreements and designed and reviewed charitable trust agreements. In addition to other numerous duties, Heidi advised the UCSF Foundation on legal and tax issues.

Having spent her last seventeen years of work life in gift planning and advising donors to large non-profit institutions, Heidi served as immediate Past President, of the Northern California Planned Giving Council, Heidi was totally dedicated to planned charitable giving, and a talented and tireless friend and mentor in her field. In light of her dedicated work and leadership, the Board of Directors of the Council has established the Heidi Strassburger Master's Lecture Fund in honor of her dedication to, and expertise in, the field of planned charitable giving

Friends are invited to pay their respects on Friday October 10 from 6-9 pm at the Piedmont Community Hall in Piedmont, California, 711 Highland Ave
Oakland, CA 94611. At the request of the family memorial contributions may be made to the Bruns House Hospice of the East Bay, 3470 Buskirk Avenue, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 or to UCSF Breast Cancer Research, attn: Ann Carollo, UCSF Foundation Box 0248, San Francisco, CA 94143-0248.