Santa Rosa man, who brought families joy with his Christmas displays, dies at 75

Through the sweet spot of his life, Gary Rasche raced boats, hunted deer, drove and showed hot rods, partied hard and welcomed friends into homes dressed like museums in antiques, curiosities and memorabilia.

“He was truly a guy’s guy,” said the Santa Rosa native’s partner, Nancy Morrison.

Each Christmas for the past 25 years, Rasche went all out to delight and astound kids and families by transforming his front yard into an elaborate fantasyland of holiday inflatables, lights and other visual merriment.

Rasche told The Press Democrat just last Christmas, “I have a lot of fun doing it. I meet a lot of people. It’s fantastic. Neighbors bring me flowers. They bring me cakes and cards, thanking me for decorating the neighborhood.

“As you get older, you appreciate that stuff.”

Rasche had dealt with poor and declining health for several years when he died Aug. 14. The retired boat dealer and longtime community philanthropist was 75.

“He seemed like he was a guy from an earlier generation,” said Bruce Kinnison, a Montecito Heights neighbor who appreciated Rasche’s smile-inducing, 1,000-extension-cord Christmas displays.

“He was just elated,” said Kinnison, a retired Sonoma County chief deputy public defender. “This was really what he lived for more than anything else in the later years.”

Rasche was born in Santa Rosa on Oct. 25, 1942. He grew up as the intrigued, active, harmlessly mischievous son of Glenn and Audrey Rasche, owners of the area’s Coca-Cola distributorship.

“He loved his early life,” said Morrison, his partner. “He loved his high school years.”

Rasche graduated from Santa Rosa High School in 1961 and went to work for his family. He also served a stint in the Army Reserve.

He liked speed.

As a young man, he often won on the drag boat circuit with his boat, Smoke on the Water. That fascination led to Boatland, the Santa Rosa dealership Rasche ran for 33 years.

Rasche also collected, drove and showed hot rods. Among his favorites were his 1932 Ford Deuce Roadster and chopped ’34 Chevy sedan.

For decades, Rasche savored and treated friends to getaways at his family ranch in Mendocino County’s Potter Valley.

He spent many happy days deer hunting and entertaining there.

“It’s a man’s paradise,” Morrison said.

Rasche would rouse his guests early for a full day of hunting, she said. “They came home tired but with a smile on everyone’s face,” she said.

Days at the ranch would end with cocktails and a late dinner.

It was a quarter-century ago that Rasche began decorating his Montecito Avenue home for Christmas. At first, he set out the few decorations handed down from his grandparents.

Never one satisfied to do something in a small way, Rasche purchased more outdoor Christmas yard figures. His front-yard display was never the same two years in a row.

In recent years he exercised his fondness for inflatable decorations internally illuminated and blown up by small fans. He’d shop for them every fall.

“I get there as soon as they start bringing the stuff out, to get the good stuff before it’s sold,” he told the Press Democrat last year.

He relied on his groundskeeper, John Dorato, to set out all the inflatables, lights and other pieces and connect them to electrical power. The two of them would get started in October.

When at last Dorato and Rasche set out the last attractions and hit the switch, the house’s electrical meter went wild. Powering the exhibit nightly from the day after Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day would cost Rasche more than $3,000.

Visitors of all ages would come in droves.

“Once I’ve got it all lit up, families love it, especially the little kids,” Rasche told the Press Democrat’s Meg McConahey last year.

“They like to look at all the little stuff. They really enjoy. Their eyes are as big as saucers.”

Rasche would invite his many holiday visitors to come into his garage and take in his two hot rods and the many awards he’d collected while racing boats and showing cars.

Said his girlfriend, Morrison, “It gave him so much joy to sit in his hot- rod room and visit with the people who came by.

“He was just a teddy bear with a big heart.”

Next-door neighbor Kinnison praised Rasche as “a friendly, modest, engaging kind of guy. And he was the most meticulous guy you’ve ever seen - there was not a blade of grass out of place.”

Rasche was appreciated also by the many charitable causes he supported, among them Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

“He was very generous,” Morrison said. She added that even as his health declined, Rasche remarked often that he loved his life and harbored no regrets.

His death came at his home.

In addition to his partner, Rasche is survived by his son, Gary Rasche Jr. of Santa Rosa, and by Morrison’s son, John Morrison of San Diego.

A celebration of Rasche’s life will be from 2-4 p.m. Sept. 30 at Santa Rosa Golf and Country Club.

His family suggests memorial donations be made to the Santa Rosa High School Foundation, P.O. Box 11006, Santa Rosa, 95406, or to the Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Foundation, 101 Brookwood Ave., Suite 202, Santa Rosa 95404.