Chris Smith: She walked into Sonoma County offices 42 years ago, and just left

High school wasn’t yet three years in her past when Rhonda (Uchytil) Darrow learned of a job with the County of Sonoma.

Clerk Typist II. Possibly not the most exciting and rewarding work imaginable.

But the setting was the Department of Mental Health, responsible for providing to distressed Sonoma County residents an array of services that might save or restore their lives.

“I knew when I had my interview that that was where I wanted to be,” said Rhonda, a 1975 graduate of Santa Rosa’s Montgomery High School.

She was 20 when she started the job. That was in March of 1978.

Today Rhonda is 63. And she’s just retired after dedicating the bulk of her life to what is now the Behavioral Health Division of the Department of Health.

Over the course of 42½ years, she stepped up from Clerk Typist II to Eligibility Worker to Clerk Typist III to Supervising Clerk I to Secretary for Behavioral Health Program Support.

Through all those years, Rhonda met and assisted a vast number of people who’ve relied on county services for help as they wrestle with mental health crises and drug use.

“To have direct contact with clients has been the highlight,” Rhonda said. She found especially compelling and worthwhile her supportive role with the program that seeks to stabilize and secure the lives of people committed to state hospitals after committing felonies and being deemed insane.

Important work.

Rhonda’s colleagues wish they could save on a thumb drive all of the wisdom and experience and knowledge she’s amassed over the course of 42 years. Happy for her and also fairly brokenhearted to see her go, they treated her to a Zoom retirement party early Friday afternoon.

A short time later, a surprise visited the Rincon Valley street where Rhonda lives with her husband, Dennis Darrow, known by many as the affable former owner of the Bennett Valley ACE hardware store. Their home is just down the block from the one in which Rhonda spent most of her childhood.

There appeared on the street a motorcade of cars festooned with balloons and placards. Rhonda’s co-workers honked their horns and some jumped from the cars to present to her, at a COVID-safe distance, cards and gifts celebrating her retirement.

“I miss you already!” Rhonda declared from the sidewalk. After more than 42 years of working with some of the people most desperately in need of county services, she anticipates having more time with her four grandchildren and setting off with Dennis on adventures far from the street on which she’s almost always lived.

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RICKY PANKRATZ would like to say thanks.

He’s 18 and living at home in Clear Lake while hoping to soon be able to attend real, live classes at what he regards as the ultimate college: the University of California at Berkeley.

Having grown up leanly as one of five children of a single mom, getting to Cal once seemed a very lofty goal to Ricky. But the graduate of Lower Lake High was accepted, and thanks to a large helping of financial support he has begun a freshmen year with all of his expenses covered for the first year.

“It’s allowing me the ability to focus on my schoolwork,” he said from home.

Ricky is able to afford Cal in part because he was chosen to receive a $10,000 scholarship from the Horatio Alger Association. The nonprofit helps to pay for college for young people working to overcome difficult circumstances.

Ricky, who admits that remote learning is a bit of a drag and he can’t wait to be on the storied Cal campus, finds himself most interested in studying environmental science or becoming a teacher.

“No matter what I end up doing,” he said, “I’ll hopefully be in a position to help my entire family.”

You can contact Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.