Western Farm Center co-founder Louis Bertolini dies at 84

Louis Bertolini, the no-nonsense longtime co-owner of Santa Rosa’s Western Farm Center, died Saturday following a battle with cancer. He was 84.

While his late brother, the affable Larry Bertolini, served as the face of the West Seventh Street feed store they founded together in 1967, Lou Bertolini was more comfortable behind the scenes.

The former accountant and pit boss kept a close eye on the till with a poker face that hid a soft spot for his employees.

“Lou is what we would always call the money man,” his son-in-law, Trevor Frampton, said. “He could be intimidating because he was a very serious person, but when it came to social times, he was all about enjoying life.”

By the time he joined his older brother to get the Railroad Square feed business off the ground, Bertolini had already dabbled in a few different careers.

He’d done a stint in the Air Force during the Korean War, worked his way up from dealer to pit boss at a Tahoe-area casino, crunched numbers as a CPA and even opened a caramel corn shop in Santa Rosa, Frampton said.

But he found his calling in the partnership he formed with his brother after the Carnation food company closed its local retail store. Like his brother, Lou Bertolini was a bundle of energy, marveling customers, employees and family members with his drive and work ethic as the brothers steadily built the company with a commitment to customer service.

“We called him Mr. 100 mph,” said his niece, Dana Gondola, who likes to say she started working at Western Farm Center in 1976 when she was only 2.

Bertolini was born Aug. 23, 1931, to Stella and Aristide Bertolini. The family owned a 22-acre farm along Trowbridge Road in the West End neighborhood near what’s now North Dutton Avenue.

“When we were babies, she had us in the crib right alongside her in the vegetable garden,” Lou Bertolini recalled about his mother in 2012.

As boys, the brothers worked hard in the fields, but things got even tougher during World War II.

At the time, there was a strict 9 p.m. curfew for people of German and Italian nationalities, and their father was incarcerated for about a year at the Sharp Park detention center in Pacifica for delivering a truckload of tomatoes to a company that placed a late order.

During that time, Bertolini and his siblings had to keep the family going any way they could.

As a youngster, Bertolini worked at the Franco American bakery in the West End in the morning, went to school during the day and set up pins at a local bowling alley at night, Frampton said.

He later attended Santa Rosa Junior College, where a building is named after his brother, who worked as the announcer at sporting events there for more than 50 years.

The work ethic her uncle learned through his hardscrabble roots made him tough on others but also deeply understanding of and willing to help people in need, Gondola said.

Parents of former employees would regularly come into the store and tell the family they appreciated how much their sons learned and grew while working loading feed and other supplies into customers’ pickups and cars.

“He would never ask anyone to do anything he couldn’t do himself or hadn’t done himself,” Gondola said.

After his brother’s death in 2012, with the future of the business in doubt, Bertolini sought to acquire full ownership from his brother’s estate, which he was able to do just last week, Frampton said.

He did so largely to protect the business for his employees, many of whom have worked there more than 20 years and were like family to him, Frampton said.

When he wasn’t working, Bertolini enjoyed flying, dancing, traveling, scuba diving and golf.

He was married three times. With his first wife, Betty, he adopted two daughters, Cindy Cooley and Beverly Schmidt. He had a daughter, Maria Frampton, with his second wife, Judy Bertolini. And he also was previously married to Linda Bertolini.

He is also survived by sisters Mary Dowdall, Rita Gondola and Delia Bondi, and brothers Ernest and Bob Bertolini, all of Santa Rosa.

“I think that Lou really did live an American life,” Frampton said. “He just had a wealth of life experiences.”

The store will be closed Friday so employees can attend Bertolini’s service at St. Rose Catholic Church and a celebration of life that afternoon.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.

On Twitter @srcitybeat.