PODCAST: Del Seymour

Like the Tenderloin neighborhood he champions, Del Seymour’s story is richer than most people know.

Del Seymour, photographed by Michelle Kilfeather

Welcome to our monthly podcast, produced in Partnership with Storied: San Francisco and hosted by Jeff Hunt.

Del Seymour has been a member of San Francisco’s Tenderloin community for the last 30 years. He’s the founder of both Code Tenderloin and Tenderloin Walking Tours—an enterprise he launched nearly a decade ago to give people a deeper understanding of an commonly misrepresented neighborhood. But like the TL, Del’s story is far richer than any headline can convey.

In this podcast, Del walks us through the early years of his life. He attended a Catholic school in Chicago and went to seminary to be a priest. But that didn't last long, and he soon joined the military as a medic. After that, he moved to Los Angeles to get away from the snow and cold weather. Within his first year, he became a firefighter and paramedic with LAFD, one of the first several dozen in a program that was new at the time. When he became a single parent, his sister in Oakland helped with his kids, and Del soon moved up to the Bay Area to be with them.

Del ends this episode with, at least for this podcast, a strange twist.

In Part 2, Del will describes his move to San Francisco and what he's done here since then, especially in and around the Tenderloin. You can listen to Part 2 right here.