Dominic Ciavonne Ziegler, Santa Rosa high grad, dies at 23
Dominic Ciavonne Ziegler
Published: Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 4:07 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 8:16 p.m.
A musician, poet, traveler and wild mushroom hunter, Dominic Ciavonne Ziegler made a lot of friends in his life of just 23 years.
“He brought joy to everyone,” said Jack Ziegler and Mary Ann Ciavonne of Santa Rosa in a family statement, recalling their son’s engaging smile and natural charm.
Dominic Ziegler, who graduated from UC Berkeley last year and played in a folk-punk band called the Crux, died Jan. 12 at a San Francisco hospital.
His death was due to a ruptured blood vessel in his brain, which doctors said was a result of endocarditis, an inflammation of the inner lining of the heart. At Ziegler’s request his organs were donated.
Jack Ziegler described his son as “an open-hearted person” who could “take from people the best they had to give and give it back to them.”
Eddie Fitzsimmons, a friend since high school, said he admired Ziegler’s intelligence, mixed with a capacity for irreverence and sarcasm.
“He was the most beautiful person I’ve ever met,” Fitzsimmons said. “He loved everyone.”
The sadness he now feels “is something without a name,” Fitzsimmons said. “I miss him every day.”
Ziegler, who grew up listening to music on his father’s records and CDs, latched onto Celtic music and at age 5 declared an interest in learning to play the Scottish fiddle.
He took fiddle lessons, and by about age 9 was performing in concerts with the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers, a Bay Area group led by Alasdair Fraser.
Ziegler also learned to play piano, mostly on his own, and played clarinet in the Healdsburg Junior High School band. He played fiddle and sang with Crux, starting about five years ago.
An avid hiker, Ziegler covered trails in Annadel State Park and around the county, and took up mushroom hunting — mostly for chantrelles — in the Mill Creek area near Healdsburg and more recently along the coast.
Jack Ziegler said his son sometimes brought home other types of mushrooms “and tried to convince us we should eat them.”
He made videos in the ArtQuest program at Santa Rosa High School, graduating in 2006, and attended Santa Rosa Junior College before transferring to Berkeley, where he majored in forestry.
Ziegler graduated with honors last year, and attended Berkeley’s summer forestry camp. Previously, he worked as a state Water Quality Control Board intern, monitoring the Garcia River in Mendocino County.
His travels included trips to China, Italy, Spain and Tunisia.
Survivors, in addition to his father, are his mother, Mary Ann Ciavonne, and his brother, Patrick Ziegler, of Santa Rosa, and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.
Memorial donations may be made to the Valley of the Moon Natural History Association to help keep Annadel Park open. Checks with the memo “Annadel donation” may be sent to the VMNHA, 2400 London Ranch Road, Glen Ellen, 95442.
A celebration of Ziegler’s life will be at 1 p.m. Feb. 18 at Bishop’s Ranch, 5297 Westside Road, Healdsburg.
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