Former Sonoma County dairyman, firefighter Vic Pozzi dies at 83

Vic Pozzi, a longtime Sonoma County dairyman who helped establish fire protection services in Windsor and for years wowed visitors with the exotic animals at his Shiloh Road farm, died Saturday morning of complications from a massive stroke he suffered in early July. He was 83.

Pozzi had neither married nor had children but was never without an extended family of friends, neighbors and firefighters.

“He just enjoyed helping people. He was the kind of person that would always lend a hand to others, and with a smile,” said Dean Crothers, captain of the Windsor Fire Protection District.

Crothers, who met Pozzi when he joined Windsor Fire 26 years ago, became close friends with Pozzi about?15 years ago, helping the former dairyman feed his animals and care for the 20-acre farm just south of the Windsor Golf Club.

A Sonoma County native, Pozzi grew up in Sonoma, where his father, Gerry, a native of Switzerland, owned a dairy farm. Pozzi graduated from Sonoma High School, where he participated in the school’s Future Farmers of America program.

Barbara Thomas, one of Pozzi’s many cousins, said Pozzi was the first Sonoma Valley high school student to be awarded the FFA’s distinguished American Farmer Degree.

Pozzi served three years in the Army and during the Korean War. After leaving the military, Pozzi returned to his father’s farm, and he also became involved with the Schell-Vista Fire Department, gaining experience that would later feed his efforts to help bring a fire agency to Windsor.

After Pozzi’s father died in 1963, the young dairyman moved his father’s farm to Windsor. Crothers said Pozzi and other Windsor residents got together and started talking about starting a fire department. Two years later, the Windsor Fire Protection District was started in an old blacksmith’s shop with 11 volunteers and a 1954 open-cab Dodge pumper with a 500-gallon tank.

Pozzi was one of the founders of the Windsor fire district and served as a volunteer firefighter for 45 years. During that time, he was named the district’s “Most Dependable Firefighter” of the year nine times. He ended his firefighter service in 2006, but continued to serve on the district board of directors.

Thomas said Pozzi had a great deal of respect and admiration for his fellow firefighters in Windsor and back in Sonoma, and he treasured the work they did for the community.

“He was so committed to them, and they were committed to him,” he said.

His mother, Flora, died in 1986, and a year later he sold the dairy business in a government surplus-milk buyout.

Only 56 at the time, he began raising beef cattle and selling wool for a while, but Pozzi’s farm soon became a type of zoo, a “refuge” for exotic animals such as llamas and emus, Thomas said.

The farm currently has about 150 head of sheep, 15 hornless Brahman bulls, 14 emus and lots of geese, ducks and chickens.

The farm was popular with visitors of the WorldMark resort across the street, as well as Windsor area children and families.

Viveka Rydell, chief executive officer at PDI Surgery Center for children, said Pozzi was a “presence” who could easily put a smile on a child’s face.

When the nonprofit children’s oral surgery center opened next door in 2008, Rydell said she noticed the emus and Vic feeding them. “When I finally met Vic, he practically crushed my hand” with his infamous handshake, she said.

Rydell said Pozzi had a “disarming grin” and “talked to all kids when he saw them by his fence, watching the animals. I value that he took the time.”

Pozzi became lovingly known to locals as, “Farmer Vic.”

“He was a giving person,” Thomas said. “He was fortunate in that when he moved to Shiloh Road, he found a family of neighbors. They were all his friends and all help each other.”

Crothers said Pozzi always had a ready “genuine” smile for his neighbors and visitors.

“He was a Windsor icon. Everyone knew who he was. He’ll be sorely missed,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at (707) 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.