Tony Camozzi, retired Santa Rosa police officer, dies at 80

Childhood pals of Tony Camozzi had a pretty good idea the lanky Santa Rosa native would go into a line of work that enabled him to help others.

“He was always kind of a servant of the people,” said lifelong friend Jack DeMeo. He remembers Camozzi volunteering as a safety monitor at St. Rose School, and being helpful at church as an altar boy.

Sure enough, in 1958, when he was 24 years old, Camozzi became a Santa Rosa police officer.

“Oh, he loved it,” said Sherry Camozzi, who met her future husband when he was in the seventh grade at the Catholic school and she the sixth. “And he was a good police officer. He used to go to schools and talk to the children about bicycle safety. He was a kind, good person.”

The long-retired police sergeant died Saturday at age 80.

He was born in Santa Rosa in 1934 to Antonio and Pearl Camozzi. His dad had come to America from northern Italy.

As a kid he shot right up. Mused friend DeMeo, long one of Sonoma County’s most respected attorneys, “When Tony was in the fifth grade, he was about six feet tall and 90 pounds.”

With DeMeo also 90 pounds but about a foot shorter, the two of them made for quite the sight as they rode to school on DeMeo’s Doodlebug scooter.

DeMeo said his friend loved his time at St. Rose School. “He’s the only guy I know who kissed the school building when he left.”

Camozzi went on to Santa Rosa High, where he put his height to good use on the varsity basketball team. He was a senior when he first dated Sherry, who’d gone from St. Rose to Ursuline High.

“He always made me laugh,” she said. “He was 6-foot-2 and I was 5-foot-2, so I could stand under his arm.”

Tony Camozzi graduated from Santa Rosa High in 1952 and served a stint in the Navy. He also drove a truck for a time, delivering live Petaluma chickens to butcher shops from Sonoma County to San Francisco.

He was 20 when he and Sherry married in 1954. It was three years later that Santa Rosa’s bigger-than-life and paternalistic police chief, Melvin “Dutch” Flohr, hired him onto the department.

DeMeo remembers him taking time to talk with youngsters not only about bicycle safety but the importance of being good citizens. He focused more attention and effort on kids he felt might be headed for trouble, DeMeo said.

Camozzi also was renowned for his humor and pranks. The DeMeo kids went wild when their family friend the policeman showed up without warning at maybe 10 at night, encased in a wet suit, strode to the pool and plopped in.

If the DeMeos’ phone rang in the middle of the night and a John Philip Sousa anthem blared from the receiver, everyone knew who was calling.

Camozzi and his wife traveled twice to Italy, and the couple ventured often to Hawaii and Lake Tahoe with Jack and Judy DeMeo.

The lawman was working as the police department’s traffic sergeant when an occupational disability forced his retirement in 1975.

He was a lifelong fan of the San Francisco 49ers and the Giants. His wife noted that though he’d played basketball and loved the sport, he simply would not watch it on television.

In September, Camozzi received a diagnosis of bone cancer. “He never was in any pain, ever,” his wife said.

He was treated at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital before going home with hospice care.

“He kept his sense of humor right to the end,” DeMeo said, recalling that during a visit to his friend at the hospital only about a week ago Camozzi told the nurses, “Be careful what you say, my lawyer’s here.”

In addition to his wife in Santa Rosa, Camozzi is survived by his daughters, Julianna Platt of Sebastopol and Marisa Oakes of Santa Rosa, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Sherry Camozzi said he also was crazy about Thelma, Riley and Lucky, the cats.

No services are planned.