Environmentalist Virginia Hechtman dies at 94

Virginia Hechtman had not lived in Jenner long when a threat to turn the quiet hamlet into a gravel mining town arose.

It was the late 1960s. The Utah Construction and Mining Co. wanted to dredge the mouth of the Russian River and ship the gravel to San Francisco for the new BART system. Hechtman wouldn’t stand for it and rallied other residents to put up a fight, longtime Jenner resident Elinor Twohy said.

“She was a dynamic person. She was just a natural leader,” Twohy said.

Hechtman died Feb. 13 at the age of 94 in a palliative care facility in Santa Fe, N.M.

The respected environmentalist formed the Jenner Coalition to challenge the dredging permits, which ultimately were rescinded. It was because of the coalition and Hechtman’s ability to mobilize people that they were able to protect their town, said Twohy, who first moved into Jenner in 1963.

“It was a huge battle to last that many years. There were many county hearings,” Twohy, 93, said, adding that one hearing drew such a huge crowd that it had to be moved into another room.

“They had to find a bigger hall for it and it lasted all night,” she said. “She packed the halls.”

The two women moved to the town, nestled in where the river meets the ocean, around the same time. They lived across the river from each other and met while walking on the beach one day, Twohy said.

“She talked to me and convinced me that environmental concerns were important in this world. One conversation did that,” she said. “She changed my life.”

Hechtman, who ran unsuccessfully for county supervisor in 1972, went on to wrestle with other land use and environmental issues. Brenda Adelman met her while challenging Santa Rosa in the 1980s over wastewater pumped into the Russian River. The two women took their appeal to Sacramento to stop the discharge.

Hechtman was energetic and feisty but “also charming,” Adelman said. She also was comfortable speaking to politicians and other powerful people, added Adelman, chair of the Russian River Watershed Protection Committee.

“They all knew her and they all respected her. They didn’t always do what she wanted,” Adelman said.

Hechtman was born in San Francisco to an affluent family. Her father owned? a steel mill with his brother, but the ?company went under during the ?Depression, said her daughter Nancy Jacobsen.

Jacobsen said her mother and father, Bill Hechtman, met while at UCLA. During World War II, her father went overseas and her mother enlisted in the Marines and served on the East Coast.

“That was pretty adventurous,” said Jacobsen, who lives in Marin County.

Her parents moved back to the West after their service and attended UC Berkeley. They had three children. Hechtman also raised two of her nieces.

Bill Hechtman, who died this past December, worked for telephone companies. His work took them overseas to such countries as Belgium, Greece, Lebanon, Taiwan and Iran, where Virginia Hechtman briefly lived before the fall of the shah.

For much of their childhood, though, Jacobsen said, their mother, who would later go on to teach tai chi in both Sonoma County and New Mexico, ran a classic household. She was active in PTA meetings and served as a Girl Scouts leader, Jacobsen said.

The environmental activism in Sonoma County came as a bit of a surprise, Jacobsen said.

“All of a sudden she became an activist. Who knew that would happen,” Jacobsen said, adding that the activism provided her mother with an intellectual outlet. The threat to Jenner and its natural ?resources influenced her to get involved.

“It would have ruined the town the way it was. It was so charming and pretty,” Jacobsen said. “That’s what got her involved.”

In addition to her daughter, survivors include her son George Hechtman of North Carolina; nieces Katherine Farrar-Bateman and Elizabeth Farrar Mandranis; and four grandchildren. Her son, Peter Hechtman, died in 2001.

Donations in her memory are requested to go to Russian River Watershed Protection Committee (c/o Brenda Adelman), P.O. Box 501, Guerneville, 95446.

You can reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @eloisanews.