Mike Panas, principal and co-founder of ArtQuest at Santa Rosa High, dies at 71

Mike Panas went all through Santa Rosa public schools as a kid, then came back and worked a career as an administrator known for his natural way with students and his democratic approach to running a campus.

Panas, co-founder of the highly pursued ArtQuest program at Santa Rosa High School, suffered an apparent heart attack and died Wednesday while fishing alone alongside a pond on the Russian River near Windsor. He was 71.

He was the principal of Santa Rosa’s oldest high school from 1989 to 1997. After a period of poor health caused him to step down, he spent another decade helping out at schools from Rohnert Park north to Cloverdale and west to Occidental and Guerneville.

“He loved the kids,” said the longtime Sebastopol resident’s wife of 31 years, Susan Panas. “He said every day in education was worthwhile because the kids were so great.”

Colleagues of Panas recall a most agreeable, good-humored man whose administrative style was distinctly inclusive.

“He wanted input from everyone,” said Tony Negri, a veteran Santa Rosa Schools administrator who served for a time as Panas’ assistant principal. “He was able to make everyone around him feel wanted, feel needed.”

Said another former Santa Rosa High assistant principal to Panas, Mike Steinberg, “He was not the type of leader who ruled from the top down. He wanted consensus.”

“He was real easy to work with, real mild-mannered.”

Panas’ wife and colleagues said a primary legacy of his career is the ArtQuest program, which he co-founded with former SRHS faculty member Chris Vetrano.

ArtQuest, which attracts students from throughout the county, provides focused training and instruction in theater arts, instrumental and vocal music, photography and other art disciplines.

Said Susan Panas, “I feel like that was just a big accomplishment of his and wouldn’t have happened without his impetus.”

Negri, who also served as principal of Santa Rosa High and now is assistant principal of the Santa Rosa district’s three small specialty high schools, praised Panas also for his commitment to vocational programs such as welding and agriculture.

“He realized that students have to have diverse offerings,” Negri said.

Michael Christopher Panas was born in San Francisco in 1945 shortly before the end of World War II.

His family lived in Santa Rosa but his father, also named Mike Panas, was off to serve the war effort so his mother, Elaine “Honey” Panas, went to San Francisco as the delivery date approached to be assisted by her parents.

Young Mike Panas attended Proctor Terrace School, the former Slater Junior High and Montgomery High, graduating in 1963. He went to University of the Pacific, earning a bachelor’s degree and teaching credential, then a master’s degree.

He returned home in 1969 and began his career teaching history and humanities at what is now Slater Middle School. Ten years later he was promoted to Slater’s assistant principal.

He was made the principal of Santa Rosa Junior High, now Santa Rosa Middle School, in 1985 and principal of Santa Rosa High four years later.

After stepping down in 1997, Panas went to work as assistant principal at Elsie Allen High and then at Maria Carrillo High, both in Santa Rosa. He filled in as the interim superintendent at Guerneville School in 2006, then took that same post at Harmony Elementary in Occidental in 2007.

The following school year, Panas served as interim director of Pathways Charter School in Rohnert Park. He retired for good in 2009 after a stint as interim principal at Washington Middle School in Cloverdale.

After learning of Panas’ death, Pathways Charter co-founder and teacher Karen Mirabelli wrote to her colleagues that she believes “Pathways would not exist today, were it not for his amazing, calm and wise leadership.”

Mirabelli said that when Panas signed on the school was confronted by a severe fiscal crisis and was locked in a serious legal battle. Panas, she said, “was unbelievably brave, and stepped in and provided unparalleled leadership. He mustered our motley crew and somehow guided us through the many hurdles…”

After retiring, Panas enjoyed more time with family, fishing, his large vegetable garden and music, preferably classical.

“And he loved his computer,” said his wife, who recalls falling in love with him because of “his kindness, his humor, his integrity, his intellect.”

“He was just a very good man, a very fair man.”

Panas is survived also by his children, Stacy Carlo of Santa Rosa, Kari Wilson of Monte Rio, Buck Werts of Middletown and Christina Panas of New York City; by his siblings, Tom Panas of El Cerrito and Robin Rickson of Scottsdale; and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at Sebastopol’s Pleasant Hill Cemetery.

Panas’ family suggests memorial donations to Wheelchair Veterans, 17162 Grand Ave., Lake Elsinore, Ca. 92530; Sonoma County Animal Services, 1247 Century Court, Santa Rosa 95403, or Sebastopol Community Cultural Center, 390 Morris St., Sebastopol 95472.

Chris Smith