Grape growing pioneer Harry Wetzel dies

Even after some 45 years in the Alexander Valley, Harry Wetzel never took for granted its natural beauty or its bounty.

“”More than once I heard him say as we drove over the Jimtown bridge, what a beautiful place it was,” his friend and fellow vintner Dick Hafner remembered. “He felt very strongly and very emotionally about the valley.”

Wetzel, an aeronautical engineer, corporate titan and Healdsburg philanthropist whose family-run Alexander Valley Vineyards was one of the pioneers in premium grapegrowing and winemaking, died Thursday at home at the age of 88.

It was another pal, Russ Green, a neighbor in Pacific Palisades, who encouraged Harry and his wife, Maggie, to partner up in buying the old historic homestead of Cyrus Alexander, the 19th century pioneer for whom the famed viticultural valley is named.

It was mainly prune orchards and pastures at the time. But the two men were determined to grow premium grapes.

“We hoped it would work and called UC Davis and a guy there told us it was too hot. It won’t work. But we’d been to Napa enough times to know that Alexander Valley was no hotter,” Green recalled.

Over time, others would follow their lead. And in 1975 son Hank, with a new degree in fermentation science from Davis, produced the first Alexander Valley Vineyards wine, over time building up a reputation for producing quality varietals, particularly cabernet and chardonnay.

Despite his role in establishing the Alexander Valley’s reputation for wine, his “interest in life,” Green laughed, was “good martinis.” Wine, he added, “came second.”

The elder Wetzels — Margaret died just two months ago — also took seriously their role in preserving the historical legacy of the old Alexander homestead.

The couple went to great expense and effort to restore the Cyrus Alexander home, a part adobe structure that had fallen into shambles after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The Wetzels also took seriously their roles as philanthropists, contributing to the Healdsburg Museum, the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University and the Santa Rosa Symphony, among other things.

Wertzel is credited with seriously kick-starting the campaign for a new emergency room at Healdsburg District Hospital, now named after the couple.

Kay Reed, co-chair of the fund-raising effort, recalled that at a luncheon two years ago Wetzel casually dropped an envelope into the lap of the chairman. It was not the expected $1,500 contribution but a check for $1.5 million, with another half million pledged from stocks and securities.

“Harry just twinkled his eyes,” Reed said. “Of course it made it possible for us to begin construction of the new emergency department in the summer of 2006.” The new facility opened earlier this year.

Harry Herman Wetzel, Jr., was born Jan. 27, 1920 in Howard, Pa. His father, who was vice president of the Douglas Aircraft Co., moved the family to Santa Monica, where Harry grew up. He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Cornell University in 1941 and served as an experimental test pilot for the Army Air Corps during World War II.

He wed Margaret Kirkpatrick, whom he met at an officer’s club dance, in 1945. The couple moved to California a year later and Harry took a job as a lab technician with the Garrett Corp., a supplier to the burgeoning aerospace industry.

He ran the corporation’s manufacturing plant in Phoenix in the 1950s. When the company founder died in 1963, he became president. Under his guidance Garrett flourished, becoming the world’s largest producer of aircraft auxiliary power units as well as truck and car turbochargers.

Granddaughter Sarah Fallon of San Francisco said he initiated the development of a new and efficient aircraft fan jet engine that enabled business jets to make the coast-to-coast trip nonstop, an innovation that made Garrett the largest manufacturer of small jet engines.

Personally, Harry Wetzel was known as a man who kept his counsel, with a calculating mind. Friends said when he spoke, his words were measured and meant something.

“He did the New York Times crossword puzzle every day, usually in about 15 minutes, and in ink, competing with other employees to see who would finish first,” Fallon said. “It was usually Harry.”

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Aug. 26 at Alexander Valley Vineyards. Wetzel will be buried in the old Alexander family plot on the estate, near the grave of Cyrus Alexander, and beside his wife, Maggie.

In addition to his granddaughter Sarah, he is survived by his daughter Sally Fallon Morell of Washington, D.C., his son Hank Wetzel of Healdsburg, his son John Wetzel of Santa Rosa, his daughter Katie Wetzel Murphy, also of Healdsburg, 12 other grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.