Bob Lacey, a comedy writer and entertainment

producer in the San Francisco Bay area, died Friday evening, April 30, at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, a week after suffering a heart attack. He was 57.

A Yellow Springs native, he was the son of John and the late Beatrice Lacey. He graduated from Bryan High School in 1964.

“Known for his lightning-quick, topical wit and for an uncommon generosity with his talent, Mr. Lacey wrote for such national figures as Jay Leno and David Letterman,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported in a May 3 obituary. “But it was his performance as Bob Lacey — with his distinctive white beard and hair, a delightfully raspy laugh, an innate and noisy optimism and an unrelenting joy in humor — that won him a wide circle of friends in the tough comedy business,” the paper reported.

Lacey arrived in San Francisco, where he booked acts for local venues, in the mid-1970s. In the late ’70s he met aspiring performers Rick & Ruby (Brian Seff and Monica Ganas) and took over as their writer and manager, creating “Rick & Ruby’s Last Prom,” an “ahead-of-its-time piece of performance art,” according to the Chronicle. Robin Williams, Dana Carvey and Paul “Pee Wee Herman” Reubens appeared in the show in various parts.

It was also during that time Lacey began a lifetime association with San Francisco Chronicle columnists. According to the Chronicle, “He was a frequent contributor of topical one-liners to virtually every columnist at the paper in the past 30 years.”

As the San Francisco comedy scene declined, Lacey moved to Half Moon Bay, Calif., where he wrote cartoons and humorous commentary for the Half Moon Bay Review and also became one of the community’s leading charitable benefactors.

Lacey is survived by his fiancee, Diane Landis; his father, John Lacey of Palm Springs; and his daughter, Alexis Lacey, who lives in San Diego with her mother, Karen Lacey.

Lacey will be cremated, and his ashes will be scattered in the waters off Half Moon Bay, the Chronicle reported.