Gladyne’s Story

Gladyne K. Mitchell was born in 1940 and raised in San Francisco. She was the daughter of Emma K. Mitchell, a Philadelphia native whose family came to America in 1682 with William Penn on his ship, the Welcome, and Mitchel L. Mitchell, the son of Yugoslavian immigrants from Fresno, CA, who became a self-made man in the pharmacy and drugstore business. Gladyne had three brothers and was educated in San Francisco, Switzerland, and Italy, focusing on music and art history. 

When she returned to the U.S., she became a kindergarten teacher and enjoyed this career for several years. Eventually, she supported her father’s property management business, and continued to manage their commercial real estate after her parents’ deaths. She always insisted that her business acumen and charitable efforts were inspired by her parents’ examples.  

 A travel and language enthusiast, Gladyne loved learning new things, including becoming a patron of San Francisco’s fine arts institutions, and supporting charities that improved San Franciscans’ lives. Her generosity extended to the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera, museums, hospitals, historical preservation, religious institutions, and especially St. Anthony’s, a tradition established by her mother, Emma, in the early 1950s, at the request of Father Alfred Boeddeker. Eventually she was a strong proponent of international women’s causes in her philanthropy, supporting the Middle East Children’s Institute, which educates Palestinian women, and the Maryknoll Order in Cambodia, educating women to see beyond propaganda. 

Gladyne enjoyed traveling with her fellow music enthusiasts and took advantage of tours offered by the San Francisco Opera. On one such tour to Rome, Barbara Wolfe, another St. Anthony’s Leadership Council member, remarked on the wonderful time they had together in that incomparable city, saying “Gladyne delighted in good food, good company and great music, and I was so pleased to share that with her.” 

Says Marti Sullivan, former St. Anthony’s Chief Advancement Officer, “I met Gladyne in 1981, and had the pleasure of her company for decades. She was a wonderful and caring daughter, sister, and friend, who enjoyed children, the arts, good movies, and vintage automobiles. She loved supporting the causes she cared about, in honor of her dear parent’s generous examples.” 

Gladyne’s bequests included the causes she loved most, St. Anthony’s Dining Room, St. Dominic’s, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the San Francsico Opera, and the San Francisco Symphony. Says St. Anthony’s CEO, Dr. Larry Kwan, “Gladyne’s loving concern for those in need who receive nourishment from our Dining Room, especially families with children, will care for them well into the future, and mirrors the spirit of accompaniment which is foundation to St. Anthony’s Misson.”

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