Dale Godfrey, retired ad man who did much for many, dies at 72

Dale Godfrey seemed to be everywhere.

It delighted the personable, perpetually fascinated and restless ex-newspaper advertising sales executive to sling his camera over his neck and strike out in search of photo subjects.

Godfrey found great satisfaction, too, in advocating at Kaiser Permanente for the best medical care possible.

And in meeting friends at a Starbucks to talk and laugh.

And in exploring his ancestral link to the Karuk tribe of Siskiyou and Humboldt counties.

“He cared about all kinds of different things,” said longtime friend Jerry McCartan. Godfrey, he added, was simply “one of the most decent human beings I ever knew.”

Dale Leslie Godfrey, a native of Eureka who settled with his wife in Santa Rosa in 1974, died June 30 after collapsing at his home from heart failure. He was 72.

The 1965 graduate of Eureka High School cut his teeth in advertising at his hometown Sears store. From there he sold ads for Humboldt County’s Times-Standard newspaper, then began a 32-year career in the advertising department of The Press Democrat.

Godfrey and his wife, whose name was Nancy Burley when they met at Eureka High School, reared two sons in Santa Rosa. Godfrey was still short of 60 when he retired from the newspaper, freeing up time for many other sources of fascination.

He was an excellent and generous photographer. “He liked taking pictures of people, as opposed to scenes,” his wife said.

Friend and fellow photographer Dave Hall said Godfrey savored edgy, gritty portraits. He hung such a photo, a shot of two bikers in an exhibit at Santa Rosa’s Finley Center, and was asked to take it down.

Godfrey also was eager to share his photographs with nonprofit organizations and community endeavors. Among the beneficiaries of his photography was the campaign to create the Santa Rosa Southeast Greenway out of the long-barren strip of Highway 12 right of way that runs parallel to Hoen Avenue.

Godfrey used his photography, too, to document and promote the Russian River Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Male and female members dress in flamboyant habits as they host benefits for a range of community causes.

Over the years Godfrey volunteered photographic services to the Food for Thought food bank, the volunteers who maintain the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery and other community efforts.

Shooting photos when needed was also something Godfrey did for Sonoma County’s arm of the Kaiser Permanente health system. He did much more for Kaiser after the necessity to lose weight and upgrade his diet spawned an avid interest in health.

“Medicine became his second profession,” said Lynn Zimmerman, Kaiser’s regional health education manager.

Through much of the past decade, Godfrey spent much time on the Kaiser campus in north Santa Rosa.

“Everyone knew him,” Zimmerman said. “It felt a little like he was mayor of Kaiser.”

Zimmerman said Godfrey spoke candidly as a member of several panels that interview potential doctors and administrators, and advise on matters related to patient and family care. “With Dale you always got honesty, and that was a good thing,” Zimmerman said.

Beyond that, she said, Godfrey was something of a Kaiser Permanente poster child on the benefits of turning to a plant-based diet. And he was paid to role-play as a patient to test the responses of doctors, nurses and other care professionals through what the health care industry calls the Standardized Patient program.

“He was the best actor ever,” Zimmerman said.

Important also to Godfrey was ancestry: he was one-eighth Karuk. He recruited his wife for journeys of discovery to the tribe’s territory along the Klamath River.

“I always felt like Dale pushed me to do different things,” Nancy Godfrey said. That was one of the things she loved about her husband of just weeks short of 51 years.

In addition to his wife in Santa Rosa, Dale Godfrey is survived by his sons, Justin Godfrey of Santa Rosa and Jeff Godfrey of Wenatchee, Washington; by his brother, Fil Godfrey of Eureka, and five grandsons.

A celebration of his life is at 2 p.m. on Aug. 24 at the Flamingo Hotel. His wife urges bright, cheerful dress.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.