Smith: That farm boy Tim Tesconi turned out all right

Tim Tesconi grew up with cows, sheep and chickens on a ranch out in the fertile, west-of-101 flats roughly equidistant from Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Rohnert Park.

As an FFA member at Santa Rosa High, Tim so admired teacher Wes Jamison that he decided he, too, would teach high-school agriculture. He toiled at Chico State and wasn't far into student teaching when he decided the front of a classroom wasn't his place.

A friend urged him to go to the University of Missouri for post-graduate studies in agriculture and journalism.

He did, preparing to become a writer for an ag magazine. He was home for the summer of ‘73 when he heard The Press Democrat sought a new farm editor.

On a whim, he applied. Editor Art Volkerts knew a bit about him and offered to let the 24-year-old try out for the job.

Summer came and went and nobody told Tim if he'd passed muster. He just kept writing his heart out - for 33 years.

“It kind of worked out, I guess,” he said.

All those years, until his retirement from the PD in 2006, Tim wrote intimately, comprehensively, poetically about Sonoma County agriculture, its issues and its personalities.

For most of the past decade, he worked for the Sonoma County Farm Bureau. He's proudest that its ag scholarships for local students grew from a total of $4,000 a year to more than $130,000.

Tim labored behind the scenes at many of the bureau's grand Love of the Land barbecues and awards celebrations. Today's the ticket deadline for Friday's Love of the Land, which Tim will enjoy as a guest.

A special one. Though he avoids the limelight, he'll bear up to being inducted into the Farm Bureau's Hall of Fame.

Indeed, 43 years after the PD gave him a chance to do something meaningful for agriculture hereabout, you could say that Tim has worked out.

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AT 19, EDITH LOZA was the youngest contestant in Sunday's Miss Latina Wine Country pageant.

On Monday, the SRJC student went to work at a Boys & Girls Club in Windsor. Co-workers told the children her good news: Edith had won the crown.

One kid examined online photos of her in her gown, hairdo, makeup and sash, then gazed up at her and declared, “That doesn't look like you.”

But it was Edith who won over the judges with her presence, her plea for amnesty for the diligent undocumented residents who include many members of her family, and her pledge to confront bullying and suicide among children.

Congratulations to her and to her princess, Santa Rosa dental assistant Vanessa Estrella.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.