Oct 19, 2025—4th Annual Berkeley Bird Festival

Mourning the Passing of Malcolm Margolin

October 27, 1940–August 20, 2025

It is with deep sadness that we mark the passing of Malcolm Margolin, founder of The California Institute for Community, Art & Nature and of Heyday Books, extraordinary and visionary historian, publisher, and author.

Malcolm was a spectacularly energetic and creative individual who helped bring the beauty and resilience of California Indian culture in general, and Ohlone culture and history in particular, to public awareness. A true force of nature, he founded the California Institute for Community, Art and Nature to promote three ideas: the importance of supporting California Indian sovereignty and life ways, the unique contribution of the City of Berkeley to social, political and cultural innovation and change, and the critical connection between nature and the arts.

Beloved by many, with an unending capacity for recounting a good story, he combined an exuberance for life and phenomenal creativity with a great sense of humor. All of us at California I CAN are in grief and mourning while also deeply grateful for having had the opportunity to work with Malcolm for much of the past decade. We look forward to carrying on with our ongoing California I CAN projects together with trusted advisors and our best ideas and energy. We will continue to produce our two annual festivals, engaging evenings with local authors, and to pursue Malcolm’s various projects that were in the works as a living tribute to his legacy and vision .

He will be deeply missed by all.

Details of the celebration of Malcolm’s life being planned by Malcolm’s s family will be posted here as soon as they are confirmed.

This year’s Berkeley Bird Festival, our 4th Annual Celebration of Avian Wonders, is scheduled for Sunday, October 19, 2025 at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. Please visit the California I CAN table at the Festival where we will have paper and pens for you to write a remembrance of or tribute to Malcolm should you wish to do so. All memories and tributes of Malcolm will be shared with his family after the event. Please join us if you can.

“Malcolm Margolin, eccentric publisher and founder of Heyday in Berkeley, dies at 84” The San Francisco Chronicle, Aug 28, 2025

“Heyday founder Malcolm Margolin dies at 84” The Daily Californian, Sept 3, 2025

“‘A mighty redwood of a man has fallen.’ Remembering Malcolm Margolin, founder of Heyday Books” Berkeleyside, Aug 20, 2025

Please join our California I CAN mailing list to receive program and schedule updates and information.

The California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature (California I CAN) was launched in 2016 by Malcolm Margolin shortly after his retirement from the venerable publishing house he founded in 1974, Heyday Books. California I CAN has a solid foundation in the thoughtful friendships and working relationships Malcolm developed over time with writers, artists, activists, California Indians, and people at the core of political and economic power, as well as those from California’s most marginalized communities. We strive to create a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient society through a deep understanding and love of the cultural and natural heritage of our state.

While we take our work seriously, joy, playfulness, generosity, community involvement, and a belief in the transformative powers of beauty permeate everything we do. Our core programs focus on three areas:

Working with the native communities of California on issues of political sovereignty and cultural survival
Understanding and maintaining Berkeley as a center of cultural and social innovation
Exploring the powerful connection between nature—place—and the arts, and the role they play in invigorating the social imagination.

Our recognition of beauty and our determination to share it with others in central to our mission.