Obituary: Lloyd B. Draper
Published: Monday, April 5, 2010 at 2:58 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, April 5, 2010 at 2:58 p.m.
Lloyd B. Draper, who not only co-wrote the history of the city of Cotati but was a key figure in it, died Thursday after a long illness. He was 84.
Draper, a Northern California native and 60-year Cotati resident, was a founding father of Cotati, one of its early mayors and as a journalist and newspaper owner was a chronicler of its history.
“He was the nicest guy in the world, always concerned about the community and he and his wife Prue were the historians for the community,” said Cotati Police Chief Bob Stewart. “He was usually at public events, taking pictures and cataloguing things for the new museum. He was a down-to-earth type of person.”
Draper died just a month after the opening of the history museum he was instrumental in founding.
“I am so grateful we got the museum open. He was so happy that day,” his wife, Prue Draper said.
Draper was a journalist, photographer, civic activist and volunteer, traveler, woodcarver and Master Gardener during his lifetime.
“A life well-lived,” said Prue Draper. “We often said we had a really good life. We worked really hard and we were poor sometimes, but we have been lucky and have a lot of good friends.”
The Drapers met at the Camp Noyo Boy Scout Camp in Mendocino County, where Lloyd was a scoutmaster and Prue an office employee. They were married for 58 years.
“I was home from college and very poor,” Prue Draper said. “On our first date he took me to the county fair and let me play every game and ride every ride and I was sunk. We have had a good life and a very interesting life.”
Lloyd Draper died of heart failure and pneumonia at a local hospital on Thursday.
Draper was born in Martinez and attended Alhambra High School. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps after he graduated in 1946 and served until 1949.
He also attended commercial photography school in Los Angeles and briefly was a commercial photographer before going to work for his uncle, Ed Runyon, who owned The Weekly Cotatian.
The Drapers bought the paper in 1951 and ran it for 15 years. Draper then went to work as a printer in San Francisco and for ArtPoint Engraving in Sebastopol.
Draper was chairman of the Cotati incorporation committee in 1963 and was Cotati's third mayor, serving from 1965 to 1967.
In 1977, the Drapers joined the Peace Corps and went to Western Samoa, where Lloyd Draper was the manager of a printing plant for the Catholic Diocese of the South Pacific and was the photographer for Cardinal Pio Taofinu'u.
Draper returned to Cotati and worked for the Sonoma Index-Tribune, the Kauth Brothers in Santa Rosa and Cotati Oaks Hardware.
The Drapers traveled extensively, making trips to the Amazon, the Galapagos, Machu Pichu, Costa Rica, the Masai Mara and Baja California, where Lloyd Draper pursued his interest in wildlife photography.
The Drapers wrote the book on the history of Cotati in 2004.
Lloyd Draper was also founder of the Cotati Historical Society and was prime mover in the establishment of the new Cotati Museum, which opened Feb. 28.
He also served on the Sonoma County Grand Jury, was a member of the Yerba Buena Chapter of E Clampus Vitus, a member of the investigating committee of Elks Lodge 901 in Petaluma and was an active member of the Master Gardeners of the UC Davis Cooperative Extension in Santa Rosa for 25 years.
Draper became the resident entomologist, as well as a statewide and national Master Gardener representative, and was active in training Sonoma County Master Gardeners, said Paul Vossen, who oversees the program for the UC Cooperative Extension.
“He came back from the headwaters of the Amazon River and showed all these pictures, and half were insects, butterflies and cockroaches and beetles,” Vossen said. “He became our backyard entomologist.”
Besides his wife, he is survived by a son, Robert Draper of Jenner; a daughter, Robin Draper of Cotati; and a granddaughter.
A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Monday, April 12, at Parent-Sorensen Funeral Home in Petaluma. Donations to the Cotati Historical Society, P.O. Box 7013, Cotati, 94931, or Master Gardeners, 133 Aviation Blvd., Suite 109, Santa Rosa, CA 95403, are requested.
- Bob Norberg
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