Robert Weidlich

Probably no other Sonoma County grape grower can say they worked out with Jack LaLanne at an Oakland gym or pumped iron at Venice Beach.

Robert Weidlich could. What’s more, the Occidental man served in the U.S. Merchant Marines, ran an antique store and was both a fireman and the best swing dancer in the world, according to his wife.

“He was a man with a lot of energy,” Allyce Dowling said of her husband, who died Tuesday at a residential care facility in Forestville after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 86.

As a young man, Weidlich worked out at an Oakland gym alongside fitness maverick LaLanne and actor and bodybuilder Steve Reeves. Dowling described her husband as a powerhouse of a man, one who stood about 5 feet 2 inches tall and eschewed sugar and ate health food before either were fashionable trends. She said he won awards for his physique.

“If you asked him how he was, he would always say, ‘Perfect,’” Dowling said.

Never a man of convention, Weidlich purchased 42 acres of mostly zinfandel vines in 1969 from the Morelli family when he was still working as a fireman in the city of Alameda and operating an antiques store. Dowling said he learned how to make wine in the Italian tradition while he was living in a Jewish neighborhood in Oakland.

In Sonoma County, the couple lived in a renovated barn while tending to the vineyard and operating a mowing service. They sold most of their grapes to other wine makers. Dowling said they loved the process of cultivating grapes and never desired to make a lot of money from the enterprise.

“We didn’t use any chemicals and we pruned every plant,” she said. “We were land rich and money poor, and it was a good life.”

Weidlich was born in Oakland on April 22, 1928 and joined the Merchant Marines when he was 15, after he lied about his age to get in. Dowling said his adventures included going to Russia.

Weidlich, who was born Robert von Weidlich but changed his name later in life, had three children with his first wife, Sandy, whose death left him widowed. He met Dowling in 1976 at a party and they were married six years later. The couple had one son.

Besides his wife, Weidlich is survived by his son, Robin von Weidlich of Occidental, and daughters Rachele Holstlaw of Alameda and Debra Weidlich of Hawaii.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Pleasant Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary in Sebastopol. Interment will follow at Druids Cemetery in Occidental.