Stephen Gale, former Sonoma County Democratic Party chair, Thompson aide, dies at 69

For a time in Sonoma County, people needing help from their Congressional representative or pondering a run for elected office as Democrats discovered that their go-to person was Stephen Gale.

After a long run in the aerospace industry and in business, Gale struck upon a passion for the potential of government service to uplift lives and bolster the republic. He mentored local candidates for public office, then became the senior home-district aide to North Coast Rep. Mike Thompson.

“He was here because he cared about people,” said Thompson.

Gale, a contemplative man with a gentle nature and an art for bringing people together, died Saturday of apparent heart failure amid a struggle with a stubborn staph infection. He was 69.

The native of Illinois was for nearly 20 years a transforming, reinvigorating force on the Democratic Party central committee in Sonoma County, and from 2008 to 2014 chaired the local arm of the party.

He left the party chairmanship in 2014 to become district director for Thompson, a Democrat from St. Helena whose 5th Congressional District takes in all of Napa County and parts of Sonoma, Contra Costa, Lake and Solano counties.

Gale’s duties on Thompson’s staff included advocating for military vets seeking assistance from the Veterans Administration.

Thompson recalled the story of one vet who reached out to his office because a lack of medical care led to him becoming unemployed and homeless.

“Stephen just jumped on it,” Thompson said. Thanks to Gale’s research and insistence that the veteran receive the benefits to which he was entitled, the congressman said, “My office was able to get him health care, we got him housing. And within a short time he was back gainfully employed.”

Gale’s wife, Maria Peluso, said it was clear that to meet with veterans, get a grasp of their history and needs, and then go to bat for them was an aspect of his work that he liked most. “He got great satisfaction from that,” she said.

Gale worked for Thompson up to his retirement early last year. The congressman, himself a military vet, said about Gale, “He cared a lot about people. He cared a lot about the district. And he cared a lot for the country.”

Beyond that, Thompson said, “He was a good guy.”

Gale was a kid when his parents moved the family from Illinois to Florida and then to Santa Clara County, where he became an Eagle Scout.

As a teen he worked to help put himself through San Jose’s Bellarmine College Preparatory, a highly rated, all-male Jesuit high school.

“He was on the debate team for a couple of years and did very well,” Peluso said.

From Bellarmine, Gale went on to San Jose State and studied economics. As a graduate student at the University of Southern California, he focused on business management.

After graduation he became a logistics specialist in the aerospace field, working in Southern California for Lockheed and then for Hughes Aircraft. In 1988 he made a move to FICO, the data analytics firm known for its credit scores.

Gale moved north to Santa Rosa in 2001 to become managing partner of a business development company called Wellspring. He would remain a business consultant until becoming Thompson’s district rep in 2014.

After he settled in Santa Rosa, Gale immersed himself in public service and in local Democratic politics. He joined the Sonoma County Democratic Party and in 2008 was elected its chair.

He’s credited with lifting the political organization out of a slump typified by infighting and deficient leadership.

“It was in a bit of chaos, it really was,” said his successor as local party chair, Pat Sabo. She said Gale showed himself willing to take on unpopular positions and able to unite people who had been going at each other.

As Sonoma County party chair, Gale also took the lead in assuring that during campaign season there would be a visible party headquarters. He assisted local Democratic candidates through able mentoring and the creation of campaign materials that reflected an entire slate of party-endorsed candidates for local, regional and state offices.

Said Sabo, “He really brought us into the 21st century on how to win elections.”

She added, “He kept everything at the level of respect.”

Gale and Peluso, a longtime labor advocate who worked locally for the Service Employees International Union, met in 2006 on the county Democratic Party central committee. She was cool on him at first, largely because of his support for Joe Nation, a former Marin County Assemblyman who in 2006 attempted to unseat progressive Democratic House member Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma.

But Nation lost the election, and Gale won Peluso’s heart.

“I found him a very kind person,” Peluso said. Also, she said, “He was very intelligent and able to articulate and break down complicated issues for people.”

Congressman Thompson presided when, in 2011, Gale and Peruso married at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa.

Gale’s community service included a stint on Santa Rosa’s Board of Public Utilities, charged with overseeing the city’s water-supply and wastewater operations. He was appointed to the board by former City Council member Gary Wysocky in 2009 and left in 2014 after serving a term as chair.

Friends and colleagues recall a thoughtful, generous, endearing man.

“He was Buddha-like,” said Shirlee Zane, a former Sonoma County supervisor. “Stephen would often say, ‘Today is a blank canvas to fill’.”

For much of his life, Gale savored the calm and spectacle of hiking the wilderness. A story that appeared in The Press Democrat on Independence Day of 2010 recounted how he’d explored every continent except Antarctica, and how he relished an encounter in Norway with a woman who’d survived the Nazi occupation.

She asked him if he was American and when he said he was, the story said, “She threw her arms around him and showered him with thanks” for his country’s role in liberating hers.

Gale told the PD, “One thing I have learned is how rare a gift it is to live in a country where people can pursue their personal lives and, if they choose, express their opinions loudly and without fear.”

His wife said few people knew that in addition to being a champion of democracy, “He was a seeker, and experienced many aspects of spiritual life.”

Gale’s Facebook page reflects that. He posted to it a passage that includes, “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God.”

Gale often signed off at day’s end with, “Good night, Facebook Family. Sweet dreams.”

In addition to his wife in Santa Rosa, he is survived by his son, Micah Gale, of Austin; his sister, Maryann Faught of San Jose, and his brother, Richard Gale of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The family is setting plans for a public celebration of Gale’s life.