Longtime Peninsula resident Michael Demeter passes away — service planned for April 5
Michael Demeter passed away on March 18, 2024. He was born on December 11, 1939, to John Demeter and Kathleen (Hallissey) Demeter in Palo Alto. He attended grammar school at St. Joseph’s Menlo Park, high school at Bellarmine College Preparatory, and college at the University of San Francisco.
After graduating college, Michael enlisted in the United States Navy in 1962, and graduated from Officers Candidate School, Newport, R.I. He served for five years as an Engineer on the USS Somers, was awarded the National Defense Service Medal and Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for his service in Vietnam, and was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1967 as a Lieutenant.
Upon his discharge from the Navy, he returned to Menlo Park to work with his father in the family’s taxicab (Yellow Cab of Palo Alto) and charter bus (Peninsula Charter Lines) businesses, where he worked for the next 38 years. In 1974, he met his future wife, Barbara. Married in 1975, they settled in Atherton where they raised their family of two children.
After selling Peninsula Charter Lines in 2005, he continued to work every day, actively managing his real estate rental properties. An avid gardener, he spent all his free time working in his yard, growing his own fruits and vegetables from seed in his greenhouse every winter. Summers were spent swimming and barbequing over oak-wood fires in his backyard. He was also blessed to spend time with his eight grandchildren doing the things that he loved.
Michael was proud to be a lifelong resident of the Menlo Park area and was an active member of the Menlo Park Historical Association. He boasted that, except for his time in the Navy, he always lived within a mile of his childhood home on Pine St.
A devoted parishioner of The Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park, he served as an usher at 8:00 a.m. Mass for the better part of the past 60 years. He felt strongly about supporting the causes that he loved both financially and with his time and talents, and invested countless hours in causes that were important to him, including Sacred Heart Schools, Bellarmine, and U.S.F.
Michael was preceded in death by brother, Ronald, in 1937; and his beloved wife, Barbara, in 2014. He is survived by his wife, Josephine (Sinclair) Demeter of nine wonderful years; his son, John (Megan); grandchildren, Kathleen, Jack, Mary, Claire, and Noreen; his daughter, Angela Schaufler (Gernot); grandchildren, Michael, Thomas, and Matthew; and his stepdaughter, Natalie Mitchell; as well as his extensive Irish and Hungarian cousins, aunts, uncles, and relatives in San Francisco, the greater Bay Area, Michigan, and Ireland.
A rosary (10:00 am) and Funeral Mass (11:00 am) will be held at the Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park on April 5, 2024. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Church of the Nativity, in memory of Michael Demeter, 210 Oak Grove Ave., Menlo Park, Calif. 94025, or online.
