Phyllis Sherrill Stanin

Walnut Creek, CA where she resided for the last 9 months of her life. Care was aided by Hospice

East Bay in her last few days. She was 68 years old.

In August 2023, Phyllis was diagnosed with Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a highly

aggressive form of brain cancer. After surgery at the University of California-San Francisco

(UCSF) Medical Center, Parnassus Campus, she rehabbed and received cancer treatments at the

John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek.

Phyllis was the youngest of two children of Joseph Elcana Sherrill and Margaret Irene

Throneburg. She was born on March 27, 1956, in Lenoir, NC and lived in nearby Granite Falls,

NC through her high school years. She graduated from Granite Falls High School in 1974.

Phyllis initially attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and subsequently

received her B.S. degree in Geology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in

1978. From there, she started her career as a professional geologist working for Core

Laboratories in Texas, Mexico, and Mississippi before becoming a petroleum geologist in 1980

for the Gulf Oil Corporation and later Chevron Corporation in Oklahoma City, New Orleans, and

San Ramon, CA. She married Frederick Theodore Stanin in 1984 in the MacRae Meadows at the

foot of Grandfather Mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains of her native North Carolina. They

were husband and wife until her death.

In 1990, Phyllis made a career change to hydrogeology and worked for Todd Groundwater in the

Bay Area for the next 33 years. She became Vice President and Principal Hydrogeologist of the

company leading numerous investigations and projects aimed at understanding groundwater

conditions and providing consulting services for many clients primarily in the Central Valley and

Southern California as well as Texas and Arizona. Phyllis was highly regarded in her

professional field and was known primarily through her work related to the sustainability of

groundwater resources and groundwater basin planning. During her professional careers, she also

pursued graduate studies in geology at the University of New Orleans and in hydrogeology at the

University of San Francisco (USF). She received her Master of Science degree in Environmental

Management from USF in 2000.

Phyllis had a wide range of interests beyond her professional career. She loved music of many

kinds, playing piano (especially Scott Joplin rags), literature (especially Shakespeare), art,

swimming, hiking, yoga, dance, travel (especially to other countries), movies, dining out, and

cooking for her husband and many friends. She also tutored grade-school children in West

Oakland in reading and math for nearly 10 years. But perhaps her greatest interest was in

animals, especially dogs. From Patches, her dog of childhood, to her four dogs throughout her

adult life (Ernie, Bucky, Jessie, and Frankie), Phyllis showered her four-legged friends with love

and training. In her later years, she became a competitive dog handler in dog agility trials. Phyllis

and Frankie teamed up to win dozens of ribbons at many competitions.