World traveler Bill Pedersen always left his heart at home in Santa Rosa

Bill Pedersen loved to travel, especially on a fun road trip behind the wheel of a fine automobile. After traversing virtually every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada, he and his late wife Patricia set off to see the rest of the world. By the time he was in his 80s, he had set foot in more than 100 countries and all seven continents.

But for Pedersen, who spent some 45 years running his family’s downtown furniture store — Pedersen’s — there was no place like home. His world was several square miles in the heart of Santa Rosa, where he was born, grew up, met his wife, went to college, raised a family and worked for his whole life.

A downtown business leader and philanthropist, William “Bill” Pedersen died Jan. 3 at his longtime home in the Grace Tract, surrounded by family. He was 94.

“He was very kind and a gentle man, a real gentleman. It seemed like he was from a simpler time,” said Santa Rosa Junior College President Frank Chong, who counted Pedersen among the school’s leading financial supporters.

“The Pedersen furniture company was a fixture in Santa Rosa for so many years. We’ll always be indebted to him for his generosity and his service. Unfortunately, we’re losing so many people of his generation that helped sustain and support the J.C. through thick and thin.”

Pedersen studied business at Santa Rosa Junior College, where he also played tenor saxophone in the school band. He and Pat, who also attended SRJC, were lifetime boosters of their alma mater.

In 2004, Pedersen was awarded the President’s Medallion by former SRJC President Robert Agrella. The Pedersens established four scholarships, including a music scholarship in Bill’s name that Pat surprised him with one year as a birthday present. He was a major contributor to a reading room in the Doyle Library and for more than 15 years was a member of the President’s Circle, a group of donors who support special discretionary projects.

“We appreciate people like Bill and Pat Pedersen,” Chong said. “They never forgot where they came from. His father, Obert, served on the Doyle Trust Board and Exchange Bank Board. There is a long and storied history with the Pedersen family. It’s a beautiful story of a family that is generous and community-minded and has the type of personal characteristics we like to pass on to our students.”

A third-generation businessman

Bill Pedersen was part of the third generation of Pedersens to run the furniture store, founded in the 1890s by his grandfather, Jens Christian Pedersen, a Danish immigrant and cabinetmaker who came west from South Dakota with four children and set up shop building caskets. His two sons, Obert and Fred, eventually took over the business. Bill, Obert’s son, joined around 1950 after completing a yearlong course at the Armstrong Business School in Berkeley.

Bill and his cousin Fred Jr. partnered in Pedersen’s for decades, with Fred Jr. overseeing buying and merchandising and Bill managing the business office. Fred Jr. retired in 1980 but Bill stayed on another 15 years, finally retiring in the 1990s.

A fourth generation of Pedersens joined in the 1970s. Fred Jr.’s son Ken came in 1971 and later would take over the store with his brother Paul. Bill’s son Dick also was part of the team from 1974 to 1998. Ken and Paul Pedersen finally closed the doors on the family business in 2019, ending a 125-year-old downtown institution.

Over his years in business, Bill Pedersen navigated major changes in the city and in consumer tastes and trends. The first Pedersen’s, on A Street, was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. Jens Christian Pedersen quickly set up shop at his home and then moved to what is now Corrick’s on Fourth Street. Eventually he moved to a rented spot at Fifth and B streets.

During the boom years of the 1950s, with World War II GIs marrying and buying homes, cousins Bill and Fred took out a construction loan and built a permanent home for Pedersen’s at Fifth and B streets.

In the old days, Pedersen’s was a one-stop shop for outfitting a home. In addition to furniture, it sold mattresses, appliances, TVs, stereos and vacuums, all displayed in rows in a warehouse-like setting. But over time, it pared its inventory to fine furnishings, displayed in vignettes, and offered in-house interior design services as well.

Ken Pedersen said he admired the way Bill was open to change.

“When we wanted to try a new thing or computerize, Bill was always very supportive. I imagine that wasn’t always easy for him. He was a guy that loved routine and was not real comfortable with change. For him to allow us to make those changes along the way is what contributed to the family being able to work together all those years.”

Downtown booster

Bill Pedersen was a loyal booster, not only of SRJC, but of the Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Foundation and of Santa Rosa’s downtown business center.

He was a member of the Rotary Club for decades and served as its president. Even while traveling, he made a point to attend Rotary meetings in other cities, recalled his daughter Ann Pedersen Arabian of Glen Ellen.

He served on the Downtown Development Association and was a loyal member of the Chamber of Commerce, serving as its president in 1968 during the city’s centennial celebration. It was Bill Pedersen who that year placed the time capsule in Old Courthouse Square that was unearthed in 2018 during the square reunification project.

“He treated those positions like it was a second job,” Ken Pedersen recalled. “He was totally into it. He organized and planned all the meetings and arranged for speakers.”

Love of cars and travel

Bill Pedersen set his cap for the former Patricia Becker when he spotted a photo of her in the San Francisco Chronicle posing as Queen of the Livestock at The Cow Palace. He won her heart, his quiet manner a counterpoint to her effervescence.

Together they were a power couple and enjoyed entertaining, trips to their second home in Tahoe where he was an accomplished skier on water and land and being active supporters of the California Junior Miss Pageant during the years it was held in Santa Rosa.

Pederson had many passions, but among his greatest were Big Band Music, both playing it and listening to it. He also fancied nice cars, especially Cadillacs.

“He owned 53 cars (over his lifetime). All documented. He never bought a set of tires in his life,” his son Dick Pedersen said. He would trade up before that was necessary.

When his kids were still young, every year he would meticulously plan out a road trip, unveiling the route in minute detail in a binder at Christmas.

“We did every inch of the Alaskan Highway, and it was all gravel. It was insane,” daughter Ann Arabian said.

Later, he and Pat traveled the world to exotic ports. And when she died in 2010, he carried on, hitting his 100th country on a cruise with his granddaughter Megan Arabian, who was a youth activity director for Disney Cruises at the time.

For all his outer reserve, he had a sharp wit and knew how to hit a fine balance between work and pleasure, his daughter said.

“He was interested in others. He loved a good story,” she said. “He could make you laugh until you couldn’t breathe.”

A private family service for Pedersen will be held Saturday. Burial was at Santa Rosa Memorial Park.

In addition to his two children and cousins, he is survived by four grandchildren and two great-grandsons. The family suggests contributions to the Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Foundation or the Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com. OnTwitter @megmcconahey.