Clay Van Artsdalen, former Santa Rosa police officer, dies at 55

As an athletic, humble and kind kid in San Luis Obispo County, Clay Van Artsdalen knew he wanted to become a police officer.

“He loved people,” said his wife, who was known as Lynne Sullivan back when they were nod-in-the-hallway classmates at Arroyo Grande High School. “It was all about wanting to help people.”

Van Artsdalen was 21 when he was sworn into the Grover City Police Department. Many current and former officers with the Santa Rosa Police Department believe they and their city were fortunate that in 1988 he relocated his life, family and career to Sonoma County.

“There was no one like Clay,” said friend and former colleague Ray Navarro, who became Santa Rosa’s police chief last July.

“So caring, just a very special guy,” Navarro said of Van Artsdalen, whose contributions as a 28-year Santa Rosa officer included partnering with Pepper, the city’s first drug dog, and founding the Shop with a Cop holiday gift program for underserved children.

Van Artsdalen died Monday after living with cancer for more than five years. He was 55.

Some who mourn him will remember him most not for what he did in uniform but in an apron. Van Artsdalen was a serious baker and someone who regarded chocolate as one of the best things in life. Should he hear someone praise white chocolate he’d declare, “White chocolate is not chocolate!”

Clay Joseph Van Artsdalen was born in 1964 in San Luis Obispo and grew up in Grover City, a town just south of Pismo Beach that in 1992 changed its name to Grover Beach.

After graduating from high school in 1982 he enrolled at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria. And he and his future wife, who was then a senior at Arroyo Grande High, started dating.

Lynne Sullivan had previously admired from afar the football player and wrestler who’d been voted the homecoming king.

“Everybody knew who he was,” she said. “He was friendly across the board to all the groups” on campus.

The young couple from Grover City married Nov. 30, 1985, at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Arroyo Grande. That same year, Clay Van Artsdalen started as a rookie cop in Grover City, then home to about 10,000 people.

After three years, he was ready to help police a bigger town.

“He was just craving some action, some excitement,” Lynne Van Artsdalen said.

Her husband also wanted to be busier, and to have some promotional opportunities.

At that time, in 1988, the Van Artsdalens had a friend in San Luis Obispo County who drove regularly to Santa Rosa to have her horse trained there. She told the couple that Santa Rosa and Sonoma County were beautiful.

“We took a weekend trip up there and just fell in love with it,” Lynne Van Artsdalen said. Her husband, then 24, applied to and was welcomed into the Santa Rosa Police Department.

He came to be praised as one of the department’s finest and friendliest officers as he worked as a drug dog handler, a training sergeant and a detective assigned to domestic violence and sexual assault crimes.

People close to him said it was perfectly within his character when he started Shop with a Cop. Collaborating with the Target store on Santa Rosa Avenue and with nonprofits serving kids who live with little or have suffered abuse or neglect, Van Artsdalen organized holiday shopping outings.

Target and some supporters within and outside the Police Department donated gift cards. Van Artsdalen and fellow SRPD officers would each year treat participating children to breakfast, then shop with them for gifts for themselves and members of their families.

Van Artsdalen raised money for Shop with a Cop by raffling off a sweet deal: The winner would receive, from him, home-baked goodies once a month for a year.

Van Artsdalen told The Press Democrat during the 2009 shopping spree with 21 kids in foster care, “This is a hard time of year for them. We can’t fix everything ... but we’re helping out.”

In 2012, the regional chapter of the American Red Cross recognized Van Artsdalen’s program by naming him one of its Local Heroes of the year.

Van Artsdalen retired from the department in 2016 as a lieutenant, but continued to take kids shopping. “It was a real highlight for him,” his wife said.

She and daughters Victoria and Lauren were with him when he died Monday at the family’s home in Windsor.

“He was a man of faith,” Navarro said, “a man committed to his family, and to our organization and to service.”

In addition to his wife and daughters, Van Artsdalen is survived by his parents, Pauline and Cec Ward of Santa Maria and his brothers, Thom Van Artsdalen of Boise and Rod Van Artsdalen of Nipomo.

A celebration of his life will be held at 11 a.m. on Feb. 14 at Santa Rosa’s Resurrection Parish, 303 Stony Point Road.