Bert Eibner was born July 18, 1951, in Baltimore, Maryland and died on February 2, 2023, at his home in San Francisco. He and I shared a friendship that spanned nearly 30 years and I will be mourning his loss for a very long time.
Bert had a life that some people would consider nothing out of the ordinary, but to me, he was more than that – he was extraordinary, larger than life because he really knew how to live life. Bert loved life as well as people, and people loved Bert! People always gravitated to him and incidentally, so did pets. Dogs and cats would always rush up, dogs wagging their tails and cats purring contentedly.
It all started with an unexpected birth at home, and the premature twins caught wife Marcella Eibner and husband Albert Otto Eibner, Sr. quite by surprise. Barely 3 pounds, young Albert Otto Eibner, Jr. (Bert) and James (Jimmy) spent the first few months of their life in an incubator. In 1951, it was phenomenal that a set of twins born prematurely survived, let alone when it happened at home! Yet survive they did. The infants did quite well for their first few months, then sadly, little Jimmy fell ill at the age of 3 months and succumbed. Yet, going against all the odds of being born prematurely in that era, young Bert continued to thrive and went on to become a bright, outgoing, inquisitive, and often mischievous youngster.
Young Bert Eibner with his family in Baltimore, Maryl
Young Bert Eibner attended parochial schools in Baltimore, where he developed, like his father before him, that classic Eibner sense of humor. He loved to crack jokes and get people laughing. It naturally followed, of course, that anything potentially distressing coming in his direction would be instantly shot down with one of Bert’s hilarious quips. People loved and admired this rare ability.
A more mature Bert eventually graduated from Calvert Hall High School in 1969. He went on to receive an Associate of Arts degree in Art from Community College in Baltimore, decided to pursue his dream of becoming an artist, and moved to the West Coast.
“I arrived in San Francisco in January 1976, and it was then that my life really began,” he always loved to tell people. Bert quickly found a position as a customer service representative at Pacific Bell. It was a lucrative union job with excellent benefits, and he worked there until his retirement in 2009. Bert found the time to pursue painting and loved working with acrylics, leaving behind many canvases for his survivors to treasure.
The beginning of the end started in spring 2020, when Bert’s medical issues began compounding. Trips to the hospital were becoming more frequent and sensing there wasn’t much time left, he had begun to become philosophical about life. As we traveled together in a taxi to the hospital one day, a question he asked caught me completely off-guard. “Why do you suppose that I survived back in 1951 and my brother Jimmy didn’t?” I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just shrugged. I think at that point we both knew what was coming.
Eventually, Bert accepted his failing health, possibly aware that we all eventually share the same destiny…like a clock that begins moving backwards. “It’s just birth, only in reverse,” he joked. He always loved to cheer people up when things got gloomy, and I will always remember that.
The end eventually came for him and when it did, family and friends were by his side. Bert Eibner crossed over peacefully and I’m sure that heaven is now a much cheerier place.
