Kit Tuveson, who got HP facility in Rohnert Park built, dies

Christopher “Kit” Tuveson had a year left to graduate from Stanford University when he first started working for William Hewlett and David Packard in the mid-1960s.

Tuveson, who worked with HP during the summer between his junior and senior years and was hired full time after graduation, quickly climbed the ranks. When the technology giant started manufacturing in Santa Rosa in the 1970s, Tuveson moved north, becoming the assistant facilities manager at the site until the opening of the new plant in Rohnert Park about a decade later.

Tuveson, who spent 37 years with HP, died April 13 after a battle with kidney cancer. He was 70.

As facilities manager, he supervised construction of the Rohnert Park campus, now Sonoma Mountain Village. He also had to figure out how to move equipment and a thousand employees from Santa Rosa to the new site.

“They had to do it over the weekend,” said Prue Draper, a local historian who worked as Tuveson’s administrative assistant for nearly a decade. She added he did it without interrupting workers at the Santa Rosa plant.

It was a bigger challenge to build the facility.

“That man walked through every political minefield and got that facility built,” said his wife, Afton Auld Tuveson, who lives in El Dorado Hills.

The project faced intense scrutiny and had to be put before Rohnert Park residents for a vote, Draper recalled. Residents in Cotati had challenged the project, arguing the plant would contaminate the environment, she said. But in the end it was welcomed by voters, who approved it by a large margin, Draper said.

“It was a challenging time,” said Draper, who as a journalist covered the controversy for a Rohnert Park weekly newspaper before going to work for Tuveson.

However, she said, “he never gave up on anything.”

As facilities manager, Tuveson oversaw engineers and custodial workers and handled security, health and safety issues, Draper said.

“He had a pretty large team that reported to him,” Draper said. “He did a good job keeping them happy.”

Ken Blackman was city manager of Santa Rosa when Tuveson moved to town.

“He almost seemed small town, small business,” Blackman recalled. “He was always open and willing to discuss. He never used his position to gain access or try to impress anyone.”

Like other HP executives, Tuveson was heavily involved in the community, Blackman said. He sat on chamber of commerce committees and organizations but never used the roles to advance the company’s agenda, Blackman said.

“Unless somebody told you what he did for a living, you would not necessarily assume he worked for HP,” Blackman said, adding that Tuveson took part in these organizations for the benefit of the community.

He dedicated his time to volunteering with organizations such as the Board of Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy and Serrano Country Club in El Dorado Hills, where lived until his death.

He also was an active member of the International Facility Management Association since 1983. He served as the chairman of the organization’s board of directors in 1998 and recently was honored with the Chairman’s Citation award for his dedication to the association and helping the advancement of the profession around the world. Tuveson taught courses worldwide and mentored people in the field, said Jim Whittaker, IFMA Board chairman

“He’s known as one the greatest strategic thinkers,” said Whittaker, who awarded Tuveson the Chairman’s Citation this past September.

Tuveson was born in Riverside, where his father worked as an orthopedic surgeon, patching up soldiers who had returned injured from World War II. His family moved to Phoenix after the war.

After he graduated from high school, Tuveson returned to California, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s in industrial engineering at Stanford.

It was in Santa Rosa where he met his wife of 28 years. Afton Auld had been host of Channel 50’s popular TV show “California North.”

The couple was set up on a blind date for a preview party for the Symphony League’s Designer Showcase. After the event, she said Tuveson drove her home. She lived on a steep hill. When he parked the car and got out to open her door, the car started rolling down hill.

“I was focused on trying to get out of the seatbelt to get to the emergency brake,” Auld Tuveson, 67, recalled. She leaped into the driver’s seat and took control of the wheel. The car came to a stop as it hit a post and retaining wall.

“I was sure I wasn’t going to see him (again),” she said.

The couple married on April 11, 1987.

They moved to the South Bay in 1992, when Tuveson was transferred to HP’s corporate headquarters and named global director of facility operations and global director of environmental health and safety. When he retired in 2002, he launched his own consulting business, working with high-tech startups.

In addition to his wife, survivors include his brother, Tim Tuveson of Phoenix; daughters Jennifer McElroy and Carrie Wozadlo, of Berkeley and San Jose, respectively; and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 5 p.m. June 14 at the Serrano Country Club in El Dorado Hills.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, donations can be made to the IFMA Foundation for the Tuveson scholarship funds at ifma.org.

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