Nancy Hellman Bechtle was appointed to the Presidio Trust board of directors by President George W. Bush in 2008. She took over as chair of the board in January 2010. The Presidio Trust is a federal corporation created by Congress to manage the Presidio of San Francisco, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The oldest continuously operated military post in the nation, the Presidio of San Francisco was a military base for 218 years, from the time Spain established El Presidio in 1776, until the Army, in 1994, transferred it to the National Park Service.

 

Born in 1937, Bechtle is a fourth-generation San Franciscan who grew up across the street from the Presidio. As a child she used to climb the wall and play in a park on Presidio property. She was once kicked out for riding her horse on the base.

 

Her great-grandfather, Isaias Hellman, donated part of the land to build the University of Southern California. Moving to San Francisco in 1890, he eventually served as president or director of 17 banks. Among his partners were Levi Strauss and Hellman’s brother-in-law, Mayer Lehman, who co-founded Lehman Brothers.

 

Both of Nancy Bechtle’s parents served in World War II; her mother, Ruth Koshland, was a Women Air Force Pilot (WASP). Ruth died in 1972 while scuba diving the day after she had a moter scooter accident. Nancy’s brother, Warren, is a near-billionaire investor specializing in leveraged buyouts.

 

She attended Stanford University, where she was on the ski team. She dropped out during her junior year in 1959, but finally earned her B.A. in 1984.

 

Bechtle was chief financial officer and director for J.R. Bechtle & Company, an international consulting firm, from its founding in 1979 until 1998.

 

From 1987 to 2001, she was president and chief executive officer of the San Francisco Symphony, and has served as a member of the San Francisco Symphony board of governors since 1984.

 

Bechtle has served as chair of the Sugar Bowl Ski Corporation since 1998. One of the runs at Sugar Bowl in Lake Tahoe is named after her…Nancy’s Couloir. She was director of the National Park Foundation from 2002 to 2008 and was its vice-chairman 2005-2008. She has also served on the numerous boards, including those of the Charles Schwab Corporation, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, and the San Francisco Opera Association.

 

Falling victim to the disease of scleroderma in 2000, Bechtle later became chair of the Johns Hopkins Scleroderma Center Advisory Board.

 

Bechtle has been a frequent financial contributor to both major parties, including to the campaigns of Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Harry Reid and George W. Bush.

 

She married Harry Parish after dropping out of college. The couple divorced, and in 1975 she married management consultant Joachim Bechtle. She has a son, Michael Parrish, and a daughter, Jessica Galloway.

-David Wallechinsky

 

Biography (Presidio Trust)

Kid from the Hood Now Heads Presidio Trust (by Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle)