Former hospital administrator, tireless volunteer Louis Funk dies at 102

Louis P. Funk, an energetic administrator who ran the Community Hospital of Sonoma County in the 1970s and served for decades on multiple nonprofit groups’ boards, died Feb. 3 surrounded by family at his Santa Rosa home. He was 102.

Funk lent his time and talents to more than a half-dozen nonprofit boards in Sonoma County, including 35 years on the supervisory committee of the Redwood Credit Union, 34 years with the Salvation Army, 32 years on the Area Agency on Aging board and a dozen years with the former Blood Bank of the Redwoods, now part of Blood Centers of the Pacific.

Funk’s tireless diligence and good nature earned him the nickname “Energizer bunny” from colleagues at the Redwood Credit Union, said Brett Martinez, its president and chief executive officer.

Martinez said Funk in 1978 joined the five-member advisory committee, a volunteer group whose duties included overseeing the safety of member investments, and served until 2013, when he stepped down but remained involved as the credit union’s first emeritus committee member.

“He was always prepared for a meeting,” Martinez said. “He was the guy with all the questions. He took his role very seriously, and you knew you had to be prepared when Lou was at a meeting.”

In honor of his 100th birthday in 2012, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution recognizing Funk’s work at the Community Hospital, his decades of volunteer service with organizations such as the blood bank and his lifelong involvement in sports as a swim coach and official.

A competitive swimmer with a lovely forward crawl, Funk continued swimming at Oak Park Swim & Racquet Club on Badger Road until his 80s, said his daughter Sandra Funk of Chapel Hill, N.C.

“He had the most graceful crawl of anyone I’ve ever seen,” she said.

Funk was born in 1912 in Baltimore, Md., to Pauline and Louis Funk. Raised by his mother, Funk was a state champion swimmer during his years at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and went on to become a lifeguard and coach. He earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Baltimore College of Commerce.

He met his wife of 53 years, Alice Freddy Kraemer, while captain of the lifeguards at the Meadowbrook Aquatic Center in north Baltimore. There, he taught Frances “Scottie” Fitzgerald, daughter of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, to swim, according to his family.

Funk and Kraemer married in 1940 and had three children, Carol, Sandra and Stuart.

In 1949, the couple moved to Santa Ana in Southern California, where Kraemer had grown up.

Funk started what would become a three-decade career running hospitals as the business manager at the former Orange County Hospital. He later would become assistant administrator of Santa Cruz County Hospital and administrator of Vallejo General.

Funk oversaw the transformation of Vallejo’s hospital to a nonprofit organization, established one of the state’s first women’s auxiliaries and managed the building of new facilities.

He was appointed by Gov. Ronald Reagan to the Hospital Advisory Board of the state of California and was honored by Vice President Hubert Humphrey for work with youth in the health field.

In 1968, Funk took over as administrator of Sonoma County’s old Community Hospital on the Chanate Road campus in Santa Rosa. It was the early years of Medicare when the public hospital began accepting private-paying customers, and both marked fundamental changes to health care in the county.

Funk oversaw the introduction of computers for accounting and statistics, the accreditation of one of the first prenatal units in the region and a significant expansion of emergency services. Alongside Dr. John Geyman, Funk helped foster the fledgling family medicine residency program.

Funk came home to his family carrying two briefcases of work, his daughter said. He would give a piercing whistle that could be heard throughout the neighborhood - a signal for the children to come home. On weekends, he sometimes brought the kids to the office and let them play in the physical therapy room while he worked.

“We’d use the crutches, swing on the handlebars. We thought it was so fun,” Sandra Funk said.

Funk retired in 1978 from the Santa Rosa hospital but would continue to be active in community service roles for decades, even after the death of his wife Freddy in 1994.

Funk met June R. Steeves of Santa Rosa through the Redwood Credit Union, where she served on the board of directors. They married in 2003.

June Steeves Funk said her husband felt it was his duty to get involved and make sure organizations were well run.

“He was brilliant right up to the end,” she said.

In addition to his daughter Sandra Funk and wife, June R. Steeves Funk, Louis Funk is survived by his daughter Carol Marcuse of Santa Cruz and son Stuart Funk of Napa.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at the First Presbyterian Church, 1550 Pacific Ave., Santa Rosa. Memorial donations may be made to First Presbyterian Church or the Salvation Army in Santa Rosa.