Tony Pini

<p>Retired Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Pini, a Renaissance man who challenged himself in recent years to see how many far-flung art museums he could visit before he missed his grandkids so much he had to head home, died Tuesday after an eight-month siege of cancer. He was 62.</p><p>Pini commanded the city's fire department from 1985 until 2003. Through his tenure he improved and standardized the fire engines and other major equipment, emphasized the need for greater diversity in the department and strengthened relations with union firefighters, some of whom initially regarded him as detached.</p><p>“It was like a marriage that had a lot of rough spots but, with counseling, it got to where there was a good relationship between union and management,” said Jack Picinnini, a battalion chief with the department.</p><p>Colleagues and family members said Pini loved his job and was a committed firefighter and administrator but he would not allow the job to take over his life to the detriment of his family.</p><p>“As dedicated as he was to the fire service, he said you can't make your work your life,” said his wife of 39 years, Elaine Pini. The two of them met on the beach in Honolulu when he was young sailor and she a tourist.</p><p>Since he retired six years ago, Pini traveled extensively with his family and friends, played with his five grandchildren, pored over his 1,000-plus art books, spent time almost daily playing his guitars and studied foreign languages. The maker of Rosetta Stone language tapes featured him in a couple of TV commercials.</p><p>“He had so many talents. Whatever Tony took on, he really became committed to it,” said longtime friend and fire-service comrade Russ Lee, who retired as chief of the South San Francisco Fire Department the same year, 2003, that Pini retired from Santa Rosa.</p><p>Lee and Pini became firefighters within a year of each other in South San Francisco. Pini was born and spent his early years in San Francisco but moved with his family to South San Francisco as a teen.</p><p>Shortly after he graduated from that city's El Camino High he joined the Navy. He saw combat aboard the destroyer USS Radford off of Vietnam in the late 1960s.</p><p>Pini became a firefighter in South San Francisco in 1970 and was only 27 when both he and his buddy Lee were promoted to captains. Lee said his friend was a fine firefighter and a lot of fun — “a good practical-joker.” </p><p>While working full-time, Pini enrolled in college and earned degrees at the College of San Mateo and the University of San Francisco. He was awarded a Masters of Public Administration from San Jose State University.</p><p>“He always continued to expand his education,” Lee said.</p><p>Pini left South San Francisco in 1977 to become a division chief with the city of Campbell, near San Jose. He was 34 when he became chief of the fire department in Santa Cruz.</p><p>The Pinis married in 1970 and had two daughters. As a young family they did a lot of camping and took frequent road trips.</p><p>“His heart was his family,” said daughter Melissa Pini Bastianon of Windsor. </p><p>The family had lived in Santa Cruz four years when Santa Rosa launched a search in 1985 for a successor for retiring Fire Chief Mike Turnick. Pini got the job.</p><p>SRFD veteran Picinnini recalled that Pini only rarely wore his uniform or responded to fire calls, causing some union firefighters to question his commitment to them and to the job.</p><p>“It was tough for a while,” Picinnini said. But he said Pini demonstrated his dedication to the department and its firefighters in myriad ways, including the introduction of specially trained teams assigned to the ladder trucks and the upgrading of the department's engines.</p><p>“He advocated for us,” Picinnini said. “He was a chief who was well respected by the end.”</p><p>Pini retired at 55 when his retirement benefits peaked in 2003.</p><p>“I'll be one these guys who is working for nothing,” he said at the time. “I know too many people like me that just could not finally pull the plug. I don't want to be one of those.”</p><p>Longtime friend Scott Swanson, Santa Rosa's former deputy police chief, said Pini loved being fire chief but since he retired “he never looked back.”</p><p>“He was a man who could walk up to any stranger and within three minutes be having a conversation into the most intimate aspects of life, and walk away as friends,” Swanson said of his friend, </p><p>This past spring, Tony and Elaine Pini had made trips to Florida and Mexico when the retired fire chief was bothered by a pain in his side and a feeling of malaise. A checkup discovered advanced-stage cancer in several organs.</p><p>Pini fought to have as much time as possible with his family. Daughter Bastianon said his love for his grandchildren was “the main reason he worked so hard to feel good.”</p><p>Though close to death Monday night, his family said, he continued to joke and to comfort the people he loved most. At about midnight, recalled daughter Laura Glover of Danville, he told them, “I'm taking the No.15 bus to Manhattan!”</p><p>His loved ones were with him when he died at 4:30 Tuesday morning.</p><p>In addition to his wife, his daughters and his five grandchildren, Pini is survived by his mother, Florene Pini of South San Francisco and his brother, Rick Pini of Redwood City.</p><p>A memorial service is being planned for later this month.</p>