J. Eugene McAteer

J Eugene McAteer (1916–1967) was a San Francisco Supervisor (1953–1958) and a California State Senator (1959–1967).[1] He coauthored legislation to start the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.[2] The commission's first director, Joseph Bodovitz, said, "What people tend to forget now is how unusual it was to have anybody of McAteer's stature interested in an environmental issue in the sixties."[3]

In 1967, McAteer, a Democrat, announced his intent to run for Mayor of San Francisco in the November election, opposing the Democratic incumbent John F. Shelley as well as perennial Republican candidate, Harold Dobbs. The campaign was cut short by McAteer's untimely death at age 51 in May of that year, while playing handball at the Olympic Club's downtown facility. Shortly thereafter, attorney Joseph L. Alioto, then working on the McAteer campaign, entered the race and subsequently won that fall's election, eventually serving two terms in the office of Mayor.

Obituary: "State Senator and restaurateur. Co owner of Tarantino's Fish Restaurant located at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco which he and his partner opened in 1946 on the former site of the Crab Fisherman's Protective Assn. building. The building was owned by the Tarantino family and he and his partner thought using an Italian name for the restaurant would fit in better with existing restaurants with Italian names rather than their Irish names. Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy. Elected to the Senate in 1958 and again in 1962. He co-authored AB7 in 1959 to end the prohibition of inter-racial marriage in California, and he was the co-sponsor of the San Francisco Bay Conservation Development Commission. The Spinnaker Restaurant in Sausalito was also under their ownership. At the time of his death he was campaigning for election as Mayor of San Francisco."[4]