Gala Dinner Dance 2003

"Before Philip Marineau's family came to this country," American- Ireland Fund dinner chairman and Clorox CEO Craig Sullivan quipped, "they were known as the O'Marineaus."

Friends teased Marineau about receiving The American Ireland Fund's Distinguished Leadership award: "Is this an Irish quest for diversity?"

Even Marineau's employer got into the act: An ad placed in the evening's program proclaimed him "Lord of the Pants." But Marineau (president-CEO of Levi Strauss & Co. and a descendant of the Collins of Ireland) grew up in the "cocoon" of a Chicago Irish neighborhood.

This year's dinner-dance, always a favorite among Bay Area Irish, old guard and new, drew 600-plus guests.

Irish tenor Anthony Kearns got the crowd singing along on favorites like "When Irish Eyes are Smiling." And Dave Martin's House Party got the crowd to its feet, kicking off with Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl."

The raffle took a suspicious turn when Sullivan pulled his own name for the first-prize trip to Ireland. But to prove his innocence, he auctioned the trip off to the highest bidder (last year's honoree and former KTVU general manager Kevin O'Brien) and raised $6,800 more for this charitable organization.

This year The American Ireland Fund donated a cool million to Special Olympics World Summer Games 2003, which for the first time ever will be held outside of the United States - in dear old Dublin, no less.

Both Levi Strauss and Clorox are sponsoring Bay Area athletes - Team Levis attired in Levis, natch. But O'Marineau might want to order them in the color green!

Sunday, April 6, 2003 (San Francisco Chronicle)
THE CIRCUIT/Going for the Green
Carolyne Zinko, Catherine Bigelow