Virginia Weinman Obituary

VIRGINIA S. WEINMAN Virginia Starko Weinman, passed away July 30, 2023, at home with her adoring husband, Barry Weinman, at her side. After valiantly battling cancer for five years, she is no longer in pain and is at peace. Virginia was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on November 20, 1938. Along with her husband Barry, Virginia is survived by her older brother David Starko, father to Sheri Starko and Lisa (Starko) King; she was preceded in death by her other older brother, Alex, father to Dan, David, Mark and Tom, and her nephew Ben Daitch. Virginia moved to Honolulu for college at the University of Hawaii, where she received her MRs degree. She met her husband of 59 years and 9 months at the UH Library. They were married on October 4, 1963. Barry was an Ensign on the USS Radford (DD446) and they were deployed to the Western Pacific 6 weeks later. She followed the ship from Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, making for a unique honeymoon. Their income was $238 a month. Money was no object. After a 3-year tour in London, where Virginia worked in the computer department of the US Navy and Barry was the speechwriter and briefing officer for Admiral John S. McCain, they found their way to San Francisco and what was to become Silicon Valley. Virginia worked for IBM at their Santa Teresa Laboratories and focused on software for large, mainframe computers. Frustrated at their slow speed and high costs, she left IBM in 1969, and co-founded Interactive Applications Inc (IAI). Virginia wrote the manufacturing software to run on Hewlett-Packard minicomputers and Barry joined her from Fairchild Semiconductor as her salesman. IAI became the de facto company for on-line manufacturing systems. Customers included Boeing, Hughes Aircraft, National Semiconductor, and many of the major global semiconductor manufactures at that time. Through meetings with the earliest venture capital funds, IAI was introduced to Boole & Babbage. The companies merged and had an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 1979. Virginia went on to get her master's in business from Stanford University, where she was a Sloan Fellow, and then a master's in Family Counseling from University of San Francisco. Her Stanford football seats were on row 25 on the 50-yard line where she sat next to Secretary of State, George Schultz. When it was her time to manage the tailgate, it was white tablecloth, bone china, silver candle holders, her best silverware and local beer. Virginia was active in Republican Party politics and was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the US Trade Commission. She became the US Trade Representative on Intellectual Property Rights at the UN in Geneva and was the US State Department Delegation Member of the "Committee of Experts" to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva. She joined the Board of Overseers of Hoover Institution on War, Revolution & Peace at Stanford University - the premier conservative think tank - and she treasured her friendship with Milton Friedman, the father of modern capitalism. Like many immigrants she was a super patriot, who understood that America was a work in progress, but having lived, worked, and played around the world she treasured her American citizenship. She was on the Board of Directors and a Member of Professional Women's Forum West and mentored many young women on surviving in a predominantly what was then a man's world. Virginia and Barry moved back to Honolulu in 1996, on a part time basis and permanently in 2005. Virginia was a long time Apple Multimedia Developer and founded Allusions, Inc, a web developer. Virginia was a fierce believer in supporting the Hawaii medical community. The Dean of the UH Medical School, JABSOM holds the Weinman Chair. Among the many charities and institutions that Virginia and Barry have supported, Hawaiian institutions were near and dear to their hearts, making significant donations to The Queen's Medical System and Hawaii Pacific Health and have funded 20 JABSOM students directly and 26 JABSOM students in partnership with Queen's and HPH. Together with Dr. Michele Carbone, they have founded the Weinman Symposium at UH Cancer Center, which has become a premier conference on leading edge cancer research. In recent years her passions were more personal and included animal protection, tennis, kayaking and fine dining. She joined the Hawaiian Humane Society Board of Directors where rule #1 was, "don't let Virginia near the kennels", because she wanted to take all the dogs home. She was often seen mornings walking her two black standard poodles, Martini and Poochini, along Kahala Avenue. She had kayaks in her backyard and after a dog walk, she would toss a kayak into the ocean and paddle off to the Kahala Hotel for coffee. Together with Coach Jun, the UH Women's tennis coach, she started Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday tennis at Henrie and David Whitcomb's tennis court. Numerous former tennis players used this venue to return to playing. Virginia loved to watch the professionals play live at Wimbledon, the Australian Open in Melbourne, Monaco, and Indian Wells. She started a weekly dining out group in Kahala and then again in her condo, Waiea, in Ward Village. She worked hard and played hard. Virginia's Celebration of Life took place at the Outrigger Canoe Club on August 8th, 2023, and after her last canoe ride, her ashes were spread beyond the reef.