"I remember that just like it was yesterday; the last time I saw my father was the morning he was killed," Chris Moscone said.
What Moscone did as mayor has been overshadowed by the murder that same day of Harvey Milk; as the nation's first openly gay supervisor, Milk became a legend.
"My father was a great man; he worked hard and gave his life for what he did," Chris Moscone said.
As mayor, Moscone also ushered in a seismic change. Moscone was the first mayor to put neighborhoods above downtown business interests, John Burton said. The former congressman and state senator considered Moscone his best friend.
"I think what he did by opening up City Hall, by appointing Asian-Americans, African-Americans, Latinos, gays to commissions, that was it, that's democracy," Burton said.
Moscone's successor Sen. Dianne Feinstein felt obligated to honor that legacy.
"Early on I decided that I was not going to let assassination work, that I would keep everybody, from the chief of police, to all the commissioners, to his staff, until I ran on my own and was mayor in my own right," Feinstein said.
Today there is a convention center that bears his name, an elementary school and a bust at City Hall. Some may have forgotten Moscone, but his friends and family never will.
"The fact that there's no parade every year or he's not the number one guy, it doesn't bother us; we just keep private," Chris Moscone said.
But in the 30th anniversary of his death, more of the public is looking back and learning.