Ron Conway, the legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist and one of San Francisco's most consequential civic figures, announced this week that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He says he'll begin treatment immediately.

Whatever your politics, Conway's fingerprints on San Francisco are undeniable. As the founder of SV Angel, he was an early backer of Google, Facebook, and countless other startups that helped define the modern tech economy. But unlike many of his peers who made their fortunes here and promptly decamped for Miami or Austin, Conway stuck around — and put serious money into the city he calls home.

His civic involvement has been prolific, sometimes controversial, and almost always consequential. He's bankrolled candidates, ballot measures, and nonprofit efforts aimed at tackling public safety and homelessness. You don't have to agree with every cause he's championed to acknowledge that the man has skin in the game — real dollars, real advocacy, real accountability — at a time when most billionaires prefer to tweet their opinions from a safe distance.

From a fiscal perspective, Conway represents something increasingly rare in San Francisco's donor class: someone willing to fund pragmatic, results-oriented approaches rather than the kind of open-ended, bureaucracy-expanding programs that have consumed billions with precious little to show for it. His support for moderate candidates and public safety initiatives has made him a target of the progressive establishment, which tells you something about whether he's been effective.

Cancer doesn't care about your portfolio or your politics. We genuinely wish Conway a swift and successful treatment. San Francisco has no shortage of people willing to complain about its problems. It has a serious shortage of people willing to write checks and fight for solutions — even imperfect ones.

Get well, Ron. The city still needs people who actually show up.