Peggy Bremer made mark on Tiburon by designing logo, promoting incorporation
Margaret “Peggy” Herrington Bremer, designer of the Tiburon town logo and a member of the group that pushed for the town’s incorporation back in the 1950s and ’60s, died Nov. 24 of natural causes. She was 84.
Mrs. Bremer was born in Panama on March 6, 1935, the middle daughter of Samuel Herrington, a U.S. Naval officer, and Chloe Herrington. She grew up in Norfolk, Va., and graduated from high school there.
She held jobs with the Gulf Oil Co. and for the city of Norfolk’s parks department before landing a job as a ticket agent with Braniff Airways at the Kansas City International Airport.
She was hired away by Trans World Airlines as a flight attendant; she was first based at Newark International Airport in New Jersey before transferring to San Francisco. She loved travel and continued to enjoy it her entire life.
She was in the first class of flight attendants to fly on Boeing’s then-new 707 jets. San Francisco International Airport gave her a chance to fly on sports charter flights, and she became a big fan of San Francisco sports teams.
She established the Golden Gate chapter of TWA Clipped Wings, an organization of retired flight attendants.
She and her late husband, Bill, a lawyer and fourth-generation San Franciscan, moved to Marin in 1959 after they married.
They settled in Tiburon and became involved in local civic affairs at a time when Tiburon residents were organizing to incorporate as a city, a milestone that occurred in 1964. It wasn’t until a few years later that the city of Tiburon renamed itself the town of Tiburon.
Bill Bremer was elected to the second Town Council, serving from 1966 to 1970. Mrs. Bremer designed the town logo, a shark within a ship’s wheel, in 1966. The shark quickly earned the nickname “Skippy,” which it holds to this day. A few years ago, then-Tiburon Town Manager Peggy Curran encouraged a proposal by a local marketing task force to redesign the town logo, but there was a sizable backlash in support of Mrs. Bremer’s logo, and the redesign was abandoned. The Skippy logo is emblazoned on the blue and white town flag that hangs next to the state flag in council chambers at Town Hall.
Mrs. Bremer served on the tennis and swim committees at Tiburon Peninsula Club. She went back to school and earned a degree in art history from the Dominican University of California in San Rafael.
When Mrs. Bremer’s children were young, she worked in the main office of various Reed Union School District campuses and as a teacher’s assistant when needed. She went on to a position as administrative assistant at Timothy Murphy School for Boys in San Rafael.
Mrs. Bremer served on the Heritage and Arts Commission from 2001 to 2010. She and Bill Bremer were members of Corinthian Yacht Club, the Naval Order of the U.S., the Navy League, the Marines’ Memorial Club and the Montgomery Street Motorcycle Club. She loved to travel and returned to Panama several times.
Bill Bremer died in 2005. Mrs. Bremer is survived by her two children, Karen Stevenson of Redding and William Bremer Jr. of Strawberry; and four grandchildren, Garret Stevenson and Chase, Austin and Beau Bremer. Her two sisters, Barbara Cathon and Dorothy Shillingburg, and her stepson, Mark, predeceased her.
Services will be private. Contributions in her memory may be sent to Marines’ Memorial Foundation, 609 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA 94012.