They left their mark on Sonoma County in 2009
Pioneering grape grower Robert Young died June 19.
Mark Aronoff/PDPublished: Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 10:44 p.m.
A bishop whose legacy was sullied by scandal. Leaders in wine, banking, business and law enforcement. And a prolific poet and a renowned musician were among the community's notable members who died in 2009.
Most of them helped shape the course of events, others more quietly made their impact on countless people, and the lives of an entire family were cut short in a tragic highway collision.
More than 370 obituaries appeared in The Press Democrat last year, most portraying men, women and children who led private and sometimes remarkable lives that were only documented upon their death.
Among the prominent losses were:
Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann, 68, former head of the Santa Rosa Catholic diocese, was the most enigmatic of Sonoma County's public figures.
An energetic and engaging church leader known to many as “Bishop Pat,” Ziemann's career and reputation crashed in 1999 when he admitted a sexual relationship with another priest and retreated to a remote Arizona monastery, where he died Oct. 22.
Ziemann, who was Santa Rosa's fourth bishop, also left the diocese $16 million in debt.
“I pray that God will heal the wounds I have caused in the church of Santa Rosa,” Ziemann said in a 2000 letter to parishioners asking for their forgiveness. Friends said Ziemann, who retained the title of bishop, lived a humble, penitent life at the Holy Trinity Monastery near Tucson.
Harmonica virtuoso Norton Buffalo, 58, came to fame in the late 1970s, crooning his hit “Lovin' In the Valley of the Moon.” Buffalo, who lived in a Glen Ellen farmhouse for decades, played with the Steve Miller Band and accompanied a who's who of musical greats, including the Grateful Dead, Bonnie Raitt and the Doobie Brothers.
“He was just one of these wonderful characters we've had and been blessed with in Sonoma County,” said Bill Bowker, longtime Sonoma County DJ and friend. Buffalo died Oct. 30.
Born and raised on an Alexander Valley prune ranch, Robert Young, 90, stunned local folks when he began ripping out the prune trees and planting cabernet sauvignon grapes in 1963.
Young recognized the promise and profitability of grapes long before the premium wine boom that put his valley — and Sonoma County — on a global map. His chardonnay grapes went into a vineyard-designated Chateau St. Jean wine in 1975 that set a benchmark for the wine industry.
“The man was an icon in every sense of the word,” said Richard Arrowood, a winemaker who made the first Chateau St. Jean chardonnay from Young's grapes and later guided production of the first Robert Young Estate wines. Young died June 19.
Tall, lean and rugged-looking, Gene Tunney, 77, was perfectly cast as a western lawman and served as Sonoma County's district attorney for 20 years. Critics said he was too controlling, but admirers said he elevated the prosecutor's office from a rural county operation to one that dealt with increasingly urban crime.
The son of heavyweight boxing champion James Joseph “Gene” Tunney, he retired in 1994, moved to Hawaii for a decade and returned to Marin County.
Criminal defense attorney Chris Andrian said Tunney could be tough, “but I always described him as a bulldog with a heart of gold. He was stern, he was certainly no pushover, but he had a sense of justice about him.” Tunney died Aug. 9.
Don Emblen, 90, a writer, poet and longtime Santa Rosa Junior College English instructor, was Sonoma County's first poet laureate.
Emblen, who always carried a notebook and wrote every day, estimated in 2000 that he had penned more than 4,000 poems. Even as an octogenarian, he continued his craft. “You write because you haven't figured everything out, because there's still something to learn, because you haven't solved all the puzzles of writing poetry,” he said.
He taught at SRJC from 1959-88 and became a campus fixture. “It was an era of grand gestures, and Don was at the center of a huge, intellectual dynamo of a place,” said current SRJC English teacher Richard Speakes, who took Emblen's class in 1970. Emblen died April 24.
Perhaps the most striking loss of the year was the Maloney family of Sonoma — John, 45, Susan, 42, and their children, Aiden, 8, and Grace, 5 — in a horrific vehicle collision on Nov. 28.
“You have four angels of love marching with you and walking with you,” Peadar Dalton, a family friend and minister, told Molly Maloney, the lone surviving family member, at a packed memorial on Dec. 4. Doves and balloons were released earlier that day at Sonoma's Prestwood School, where the Maloney children were students.
The four Maloneys were on their way home from a trip to Maui when their minivan was hit by a car traveling 70 to 90 mph at the intersection of Lakeville Highway and Highway 37. Investigators determined that the other driver, Steven Culbertson of Lakeport, who reportedly ran a red light, had no alcohol in his system. Culbertson died the day after the crash.
As president of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, Mike Hauser, 62, helped bring Horizon Air to the Sonoma County airport, boosted local business expansion, promoted widening Highway 101, and promoted high-rise buildings downtown and the SMART commuter train.
Hauser also pushed for issues outside a typical chamber agenda, including a response to global warming and teaching English to Spanish-speaking immigrants.
About a week before he died on March 3, the chamber was awarded a five-star rating by the national chamber, a top honor no other California chamber can claim.
Mike Meese, 55, a law enforcement officer for more than 30 years, was best known for leading the investigation of Polly Klaas' kidnap-murder in Petaluma in 1993. Meese, who gained a confession from parolee Richard Allen Davis, shed tears of relief when Davis' death sentence was upheld in June.
After 15 years with the Petaluma police, Meese worked as a Sonoma County District Attorney's investigator, assistant chief of the University of Nevada at Reno police force and chief of the Hopland Rancheria Department of Public Safety in Lake County.
Meese, who taught criminal justice at Santa Rosa Junior College starting in 1987, received tenure just before he died on Nov. 23.
Dennis DeWitt, 65, joined the Petaluma police in 1967, worked his way through the ranks and served as chief for a decade before retiring in 1997. Colleagues said the Klaas case took a toll on him: “Broke his heart,” said Dave Long, a former Petaluma police captain and a longtime friend.
Active in the Petaluma community, DeWitt was known for his positive demeanor and open-door policy as chief. He had moved to San Diego in retirement. He died Nov. 21.
Donna Cook Freeman, 72, effervescent hostess at Compass Rose Garden in Bodega Bay, was a social and political force on the Sonoma Coast who once said: “I don't lean. I push.”
An extra in Alfred Hitchcock's film, “The Birds,” Freeman helped stop the proposed nuclear power plant on Bodega Head, served on Bodega Bay's fire district board and chamber of commerce, and was a Sonoma County fair director and member of the state Democratic Central Committee. She died Oct. 30.
Lawrence “Larry” Edward Jones, 66, worked for 27 years as a Rohnert Park public safety officer. The circular driveway entrance to Rancho Cotate High School was named after him: “Officer Friendly Way.”
Jones, who was Rohnert Park's first black police officer, earned the nickname “Officer Friendly” for his 18 years of service as a school resource officer.
“The kids would run across the campus to talk to him,” former Public Safety Director Robert Dennett said. Parents picketed the City Council and gathered more than 1,100 signatures in 1994 when he was reassigned to patrol. Later that year, grant money was used to return Jones to schools to teach the anti-drug DARE program.
After retiring in 2003, he continued to coach softball and football teams, as he had done for nearly three decades. He died June 27.
Andrew Shephard, 84, guided Exchange Bank, the county's largest private bank, through the growth years of the 1970s and '80s, then continued as chairman and chairman emeritus from 1991 until last year.
A decorated World War II veteran, Shepard was a civic leader, former football coach and an avid angler who went after big fish, co-founded a Colorado fishing lodge and backed the fly-fishing pond at Santa Rosa's Galvin Park. He died Jan. 20.
Tony Pini, 62, chief of the Santa Rosa Fire Department from 1985 to 2003, traveled abroad, strummed guitars and enjoyed his grandchildren in retirement. He died Dec. 8.
Mary Hitchings, 86, Roseland lumber yard owner, logged 2 million miles hauling lumber between Fort Bragg and the Santa Rosa business she founded with her husband, Andrew Hitchings. She died Nov. 19.
Joe Belluzzo, 90, an Italian-born immigrant, signed up 33 boys to play soccer in 1965, leading to the formation of the Santa Rosa Youth Soccer League four years later.
“He had a passion for the game second to none,” said Andrew Ziemer, a longtime coach. He died Nov. 11.
Thomas Konicek, 86, was a downtown Santa Rosa pharmacist — and much more, a storyteller, entertainer and civic leader endowed with an infectious laugh. He had the voice and looks fit for Hollywood, but instead mixed a business career with emcee gigs at countless local shows, benefits and pageants, including the 1963 teen competition that set Sebastopol's Karen Valentine on a path to TV stardom. He died July 3.
You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.
Comments are currently unavailable on this article