Obituary: William Drum, a Founder of the Piedmont Harvest Festival

William (Bill) Frederick Drum, Jr., a Piedmont resident for 40 years and a founder of the city's annual Harvest Festival, died Jan. 11. A celebration of his life is planned for Thursday, Jan. 17, at 2 p.m. at Piedmont Community Church. The family prefers donations to the Piedmont Educational Foundation or a charity of your choice.

Mr. Drum was active in a variety of community organizations, including the Piedmont Educational Foundation (PEF) board, advisory committees of the Piedmont Unified School District, and the board of the former Piedmont Swim Club. He chaired the Harvest Festival Committee for 13 years and served as a volunteet tutor at Piedmont Avenue Elementary School.

Mr. Drum was also an enthusiastic gardener and periodically wrote about vegetable gardening for Piedmont Patch in his blog "Edible Connections." (You may read more about him and find links to his blog posts here.)

According to an obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle, Mr. Drum graduated from Stanford University in 1961, obtained a master's degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley, and spent his career in hospital administration, much of it in management positions.

He married Joan Moffitt of Alameda in 1962 and they raised their daughters, Fredericka Seale Drum (Mrs. Eric Gorham) and Francesca Smith Drum (Mrs. Matthew Davies), in Piedmont.

You may read the complete Chronicle obituary here.