San Geronimo Valley leader Jean Berensmeier dies at 90

Jean Berensmeier, founder of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center and an environmental conservation advocate, has died at age 90.

Her son, Paul Berensmeier, said she died on March 15 in her sleep from natural causes.

Ms. Berensmeier was responsible for saving the community center’s historic building from demolition and founding its guiding organization. Later, Ms. Berensmeier would found the San Geronimo Valley Planning Group and kill a 1961 master plan to develop 5,000 homes and bring 20,000 new residents in the area. She also was founder of an environmental center in the valley called Wilderness Way.

“I think for the valley and for Marin she will be remembered as a very cheerful and tireless environmentalist who was passionately devoted to protecting the environment and working with children and the community until she passed away,” said her son, a Forest Knolls resident.

Dave Cort, who served as executive director of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center for 32 years, said without Ms. Berensmeier the San Geronimo Valley would have highways running through it and thousands of homes.

“Jean really, really preserved the rural nature of this community. It is like it is today because of Jean,” he said. “Jean had a deep, deep love for the San Geronimo Valley from when she first landed here in the late 1950s through her entire adult life, a passion and love for this community that never ever went away.

“It really is like it is today because of her,” Cort said.

The community center, founded in 1969 as the San Geronimo Valley Arts Center, preserved the historic building that was once used by the Lagunitas School District. It is still owned by the district, but Ms. Berensmeier was responsible for negotiating a $1-a-year agreement for the community center’s use in perpetuity, Cort said.

The building was built in 1928 and previously served as a three-room schoolhouse. The community center now has a $1.8 million budget with 22 employees and programs that serve the valley and Nicasio, population of about 5,000 people, Cort said.

Richard Sloan, a trustee of the Lagunitas School District since 1971, was one of her chief allies in securing the building for the community.

“Her care and concern for preserving the environment was unmatched,” Sloan said. “She was one of a kind, certainly, and almost single handedly preserved the San Geronimo Valley.”

Andrew Giacomini, a valley resident, said Ms. Berensmeier was one of the advocates for the supervisorship of his late father, Gary Giacomini. He said her legacy would be as a “powerhouse” of the women in the community who sought to preserve the area from development.

“She was formidable. When Jean Berensmeier decided something needed to happen, it was going to get done,” Giacomini said.

Ms. Berensmeier was born in Livermore and grew up with her grandparents in Ruth, Nevada, her son said. There she developed a penchant for the language and history of her Serbian-Croatian heritage. She studied at San Francisco State University and taught at the College of San Mateo.

She moved to Lagunitas in 1965 and lived at the same home for the rest of her life.

Ms. Berensmeier was inducted into the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame Class of 2023, earned the Peter Behr Steward of Land Award in 2019 and was honored with the Marin Conservation League Peter Behr Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2014.

She is survived by her husband Fred Leon Berensmeier; her sister-in-law Marguerite Kirby; her brother Lou Yurosovich; her son Paul Berensmeier and her daughter-in-law Tina Spooner-Whyte.

A public tribute at the community center followed by a celebration of life at Roy’s Redwoods is planned Memorial Day weekend.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Marin County Open Space District specifically for a land purchase in the San Geronimo Valley in Ms. Berensmeier’s name, her son said. The funds will support the preservation of open space for future generations.