Search for celebrities on Ancestry.com!John Lengyel
John Lengyel, a Pearl Harbor survivor who worked as a printer for The Press Democrat for more than 36 years, died of emphysema Sunday at Warrack Hospital in Santa Rosa. He was 83.
Born in Brilliant, Ohio, where his father worked as a coal miner, he served in the Navy for eight years, where he received training in gunnery and ballistics.
During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was on the battleship West Virginia -- right next to the Arizona -- when it was sunk. A third of the crew was lost, and many were badly burned.
Later, he was transferred to the cruiser New Orleans and served in the battle of Coral Sea, Midway, Savo Island and Guadalcanal.
"The bow was shot off, so he came home to Seattle," said his wife, Barbara Lengyel, who met him in San Diego and marriage him during his Seattle leave.
He was discharged from the Navy in 1944 with battle fatigue, then settled in Santa Rosa, where he and his wife built a house on Barnes Road and raised a family.
Having worked as a printer for 50 years -- first at the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News -- he witnessed the industry's technological transition from hot type to paste-up.
At The Press Democrat, he served as president of the Typographical Union for two years and as night foreman for many years. He retired in 1984.
In his spare time, he enjoyed gardening, history, philosophy and watching the San Francisco 49ers and the Giants on TV.
"He was very smart, well read and well rounded," said his wife. "He loved history and music, and he would take us to the opera."
He was a member of the Theodore Roosevelt American Legion Post No. 21.
Besides his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Christine Stenlund of Durham; a sister, Margaret Shock of Steuvenville, Ohio; and two grandchildren. His son, Steven Butler Lengyel, died in 1978 at age 33.
No formal services will be held and inurnment is private.
Memorial contributions may be made to the International Typographical Union Retirees Club, 3450 Market St., No. 201, San Francisco 94114.
John Bates
A memorial service will be held Monday for John M. "Jack" Bates Jr., a longtime interior designer who taught his craft at Santa Rosa Junior College.
Bates, who enjoyed the Masonic Lodge almost as much as he loved his art, died Aug. 2 of pneumonia. He was 77.
Born in Susanville, Bates moved to Santa Rosa in 1950 to work for Stone's Furniture Co. He later was employed by Acme Window Coverings until his retirement in 1990.
But his interest in design went beyond his job, and he often worked on landscapes as a hobby in his free time, accenting back yards with fountains and playhouses, his daughter, Deborah Powers of Vallejo, said. Bates also put in extra time on the job, and particularly enjoyed furnishing model subdivision homes, she said.
"He just loved to create things in three dimensions," said Powers.
Bates' second love was the Masonic Lodge. He was a life member of the Santa Rosa Luther Burbank Masonic Lodge, rising to Master of the Lodge in 1982, chaplain from 1983 to 1990, and recipient of the Hiram Award in 1990, his daughter said.
He often recited liturgy and Biblical passages for the lodge, daughter Terry Swehla said.
He also was an avid fisherman.
Bates attended the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Chicago, later completing course work in interior design at La Salle University Extension School.
He served as a medical corpsman with the Navy during World War II.
Bates lived in Santa Rosa for nearly 50 years, until his move to a nursing facility in Novato last fall. He died at Novato Community Hospital.
Besides Powers and Swehla, Bates is survived by his wife, Mae Bates of Sebastopol; daughters, Jacqueline Svoboda of Santa Rosa and Brenda Orduno of Chico; a brother; and nine grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at the Church of the Nazarene in Santa Rosa. Interment was Wednesday at Santa Rosa Memorial Park in the Veterans' Lawn Addition.
John Arnold
Most anyone who has studied science at Sonoma State University has John "Jack" Arnold to thank.
The first scientist hired by the university when it opened in 1961, he was brought in to develop the School of Natural Sciences, taught there for three decades and personally established a reference collection of preserved birds and mammals.
It was Arnold who hired the first group of chemists, zoologists, biologists and others who taught at the university. He also designed the university's natural sciences building and saw to its completion.
"It was kind of a measure of who he was that when he retired, he didn't retire, he was still involved," friend and colleague Chris Kjeldsen said.
Incapacitated by a fall at the university about three years ago, Arnold died Monday of complications stemming from the accident. He was 90.
Never the stereotypical "lone scientist working as an individual in the ivory tower," Kjeldsen said Arnold was a generous teacher and scientist who viewed science "as an enterprise that he involved everybody else in."
Raised in the Central Valley community of Coalinga, Arnold studied biology at Fresno State University, earned a masters degree in zoology from UC Berkeley in 1934 and a doctorate in ornithology from Cornell University in 1938.
He taught high school and junior college science briefly before serving in World War II in the Army Signal Corps. Afterward, he worked at Stockton College and College of the Pacific before moving to Sonoma State in 1961.
Arnold's formal tenure with the university lasted until 1976, when he retired from full-time teaching. But he continued teaching ornithology part-time through the 1980s and was involved nearly daily in the maintenance of the vertebrate collection, training students in museum techniques along the way.
At the same time, he was active in the California Academy of Sciences, which named him a fellow in 1970. He also was the founder and leader in the Redwood Region Ornithological Society, and participated in field trips to Latin America and elsewhere.
He lent his expertise as a consultant for environmental planning and, right up until his accident, was working with Kjeldsen and the state Department of Fish and Game mapping wildlife and vegetation on the levies of the San Joaquin Delta.
When he wasn't consumed by science, Arnold was an avid gardener, fisherman and photographer who photographed beautiful landscapes to illustrate the poetry of his wife, Ardell, who died in 1992.
The couple had a son, John Arnold of Santa Rosa, who survives them, along with two grandchildren.
No immediate services are planned, but a memorial at the university will likely be scheduled this fall.
Ellen Woodbury
Ellen Gibson Woodbury loved children and was always willing to help with activities involving kids. She volunteered as a teacher's aide at Dunbar School and helped the students present their annual fifth grade play. She also assisted with Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts activities.
"She was well known in the community mostly through her work with children," said her husband, Wayne C. Woodbury, of Sonoma. "She loved our kids and was always willing to help with other people's kids. She loved being around children."
Ellen died July 30 at Kaiser Hospital in San Rafael, just seven weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. She was 44.
"She was a gentle and caring person," said her husband. "She always treated people with respect."
Born in Illinois, she lived in Sonoma County 14 years. She worked 11 years in the accounting office of Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by her two children, Duncan and Tess Louise Woodbury of Sonoma; her mother, Charlotte Gibson of Monterey; her sisters, Ann Steiner of Santa Barbara and Carol Timmerman of Encino; her brother, Robert P. Gibson of Los Angeles; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Services were at Duggan's Mission Chapel in Sonoma. Donations may be made to the Duncan and Tess Woodbury Memorial Fund at Sonoma Valley Bank, 202 West Napa Street, Sonoma 95476.
Everett Fechter
But for a couple of years afloat in the Pacific during World War II, Everett J. Fechter spent his entire life amid the walnut trees of his family's Calistoga ranch.
The longtime manager and director of the North Coast Walnut Association, he promoted North Coast nuts and shared his stock with many people through graftings, his wife, Hilde Fechter, said.
Fechter was still growing walnuts when he died of cancer Monday. He was 74.
"He loved his orchard," Hilde Fechter said.
Born and raised in Calistoga, Fechter was 16 when he met a girl who'd come to visit the area one summer.
They marriage two years later but were wed only a short time before Fechter joined the Merchant Marines and was sent to the Pacific, where he served on a refrigerator ship traveling with Gen. Douglas MacArthur's troops.
In his absence, Hilde Fechter moved to San Francisco to work, but upon his return the couple went back to work on the family's Calistoga ranch, raising seven children.
Fechter also served as a rural mail carrier for 16 years and worked as chief and assistant chief of the Mountain Volunteer Fire Department for more than 25 years.
In addition, he was a member of the American Legion, the National Rifle Association and the Diamond Walnut Association.
Besides his wife of 56 years, Fechter is survived by daughters Karen Opel of Santa Rosa, Juli Fechter of Middletown, Robin Fechter of Petaluma and Janis Zeugin of Pleasanton; sons, Ernie Fechter of Shingle Springs, Russ Fechter of Citrus Heights and Dave Fechter of Colma; and 13 grandchildren.
A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Sunday at Daniels Chapel of the Roses in Santa Rosa. Inurnment will follow at Santa Rosa Memorial Park.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society, 1451 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa 95403, or Hospice of Napa Valley, 3299 Claremont Way, Napa 94558.
Uldine Jensen
Uldine "Willie" Jensen was widely known as "Sarge" around campus at Petaluma High School for 25 years, owing to a brief stint in the Marine Corps.
But she had a tender heart and tried to use her post as campus supervisor to support those in need, according to her husband, George Jensen.
Jensen, who died of cancer Saturday at the age of 68, had a special place in her heart for the Latino kids, for example. "Sometimes she thought that they weren't getting a good shake or whatever, and some people picked on them or so forth, so she was just sort of their champion," he said.
When she retired three years ago, students turned out to thank her at a two-hour party. "That really got to her," he said.
She was raised in Oregon, staying there until the premature death of her first husband after six weeks of marriage. Jensen came to California as a clerical worker, stationed in San Diego with the Marine Corps, her husband said.
She raised three children in the Russian River area with her second husband before meeting and marrying Petaluma resident George Jensen, her husband of 38 years.
As their combined six children got older, Jensen decided to go to work in the schools, working first at Kenilworth Junior High School for a year.
The next year, "the principal got transferred to the high school and he took her with him," George Jensen remembered. "She served a little time in the Marine Corps, so the kids found out about that, and for years a good many of the kids and a good many of the staff, they called her Sarge," he said.
During summers, she and a colleague traveled around the country in a little pickup. "They traveled every summer," George Jensen said. "They traveled all over."
Besides her husband, Jensen is survived by sons Jim Jensen of Rohnert Park, Tom Owens of Sebastopol and Robert Owens of Kentucky; a daughter, Marlene Pincoffs of Virginia; a stepdaughter, Judy Gustafson of Petaluma; a stepson, Bob Jensen of North Carolina; and a number of grandchildren.
At her request, no service will be held.
Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of Petaluma, 416 Payran St., Petaluma 94952 or The American Cancer Society, Greater Petaluma Unit, 400 N. McDowell Blvd., Petaluma 94954.
Cynthia Tlahuitzo
Santa Rosa native Cynthia Marie Stra Tlahuitzo, who worked nearly two decades as a nurse's aide at convalescent hospitals, died Saturday. She was 52.
Tlahuitzo, whose large family included five children and 15 grandchildren, died at a Santa Rosa hospital from complications of surgery.
A Native American, she was born in Healdsburg in 1949. She lived all her life in Santa Rosa.
Relatives said she was an avid bowler as a younger woman, and she loved visiting Reno. She never passed up an opportunity to spend time with her children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and she relished having her extended family come together.
She is survived by daughters Margaret James of Santa Rosa, Elizabeth McCloud of Virginia and Denise McCloud of Oakland; sons David McCloud Jr. of Clearlake and Paul Tlahuitzo of Santa Rosa; sisters Debbie Stra of Santa Rosa and Mary McCloud of Clearlake, and brothers Joe Stra of Benicia and Larry Stra of Santa Rosa.
Evening vigil rites will be celebrated at 7 p.m. today at Daniels Chapel of the Roses. Visitation is after 9 a.m. today, also at the mortuary.
A funeral liturgy service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the mortuary. Inurnment will be private.
Carmen Rodriguez
Peruvian-born Carmen Silva Rodriguez, a seamstress who spent many late nights finishing gowns for anxious brides to be, died Monday at her home in Rohnert Park. She was 76.
She came to California from her hometown of Lima, Peru, in 1962 to assist a sister who was having a child. Granted permission by the government to stay in the United States, she settled for a time in San Francisco.
In 1963, she met Raul Silva Rodriquez at Mass. They were marriage the following year.
In 1969, the couple moved to Larkspur and Carmen Rodriguez opened a dressmaking and alterations shop, La Petit Jolli, in Corte Madera. She specialized in custom-made wedding dresses and prom gowns.
The Rodriguezes moved to Petaluma in 1977, and 11 years later relocated to Rohnert Park. Carmen Rodriguez continued working as a dressmaker until three years ago.
Her husband died in 1989. An athletic woman who loved to walk, she remained active until breast cancer stole her strength.
She is survived by her son, Robert Silva Rodriguez of Rohnert Park.
Services have been held. Private inurnment was at Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery in San Rafael.
Robert Rodriguez suggests memorial contributions to Hospice of Petaluma, 416 Payran St., Petaluma, 94952, or to the American Cancer Society, Greater Petaluma Unit, 400 N. McDowell Blvd, Petaluma, 94954.
Carl Friedrichsen
Petaluma native Carl August Friedrichsen, who worked as an accountant as a young man and went on to operate his own retail stores, died Saturday at his home in Santa Rosa. He was 90.
Friedrichsen was born May 6, 1910, to German immigrants who had come to America in 1902 and worked on a Petaluma chicken farm.
"At Petaluma High he was an excellent athlete," said his daughter, Carlene Kilpatrick of Georgia. "He lettered in football, basketball and track; he ran the 440."
Friedrichsen left Petaluma to study at Elmhurst College in Illinois. After graduating, he returned to Petaluma and took a job as an accountant at Rex Hardware. From there he moved to an accounting post with the Poehlman Hatchery.
"In 1947, he and his brother-in-law, Ted Matson, bought Knight Furniture in Willits," Kilpatrick said. Friedrichsen moved his family to Willits, and sold furniture and appliances.
In 1960 the family moved back to Sonoma County, settling in Santa Rosa. Friedrichsen became a partner in two Santa Rosa motels.
In 1964 he and his wife, Irene Matson Friedrichsen, moved again. They went to Fresno and operated a Baby News retail store. They retired in 1973, living for a time at Oakmont before being among the first residents to move into the Spring Lake Village retirement community.
Irene Friedrichsen died in 1988.
In addition to his daughter, he is survived by a son, Peter Friedrichsen of Tahoe City; two grandsons; and one great-granddaughter.
Memorial services are at 11 a.m. today at Spring Lake Village. Inurnment will be private.
Friedrichsen's family suggests memorial contributions to the United Church of Christ, 825 Middlefield Drive, Petaluma 94952.
Hazel Thompson
Hazel Thompson of Sebastopol dedicated her life to service for the benefit of others.
She died July 22 at Palm Drive Hospital in Sebastopol. She was 84.
Thompson worked for the Sonoma County Election Board for 30 years and was active in many charitable causes.
"My mother was always willing to give her time to the various organizations she belonged to," said her son, Glen "Bud" Thompson, of Petaluma.
Thompson and her late husband, Glen "Doly" Thompson, were marriage 55 years before his death in 1990.
A Sonoma County resident for 39 years, Hazel Thompson was born in Fort Bragg and lived many years in Marin and Mendocino counties. She was a graduate of San Rafael High School and a member of 4-H and was a 4-H leader for 29 years. During World War II she was a waitress at Hamilton Field.
She was a community leader for more than three decades, serving as a Sebastopol Grange master for eight years and a Bodega Bay Grange master this year. Her volunteer work kept her busy with organizations that included Autumn Leaves, United Cerebral Palsy, Hessel Church, the American Cancer Society and Fircrest Homeowners Association.
"Her family came first," said her son. "She had a sentimental heart and she loved her family, especially her grandkids and great-grandkids. She was always willing to teach them to cook and sew."
On the home front, Hazel Thompson enjoyed quilting, sewing and canning.
She also loved baking, was "famous for her wild blackberry pie" and baked and decorated wedding cakes for everybody in the family who got married, traveling all over the country to do it.
In addition to her son Glen, she is survived by her daughter, Barbara Sparrow of Novato; two other sons, Lee Thompson of Petaluma and Les Thompson of Sebastopol; a brother, Ivan Johnson of Novato; a sister, Lou Evans of McMinnville, Ore.; 11 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Services were held under the direction of Pleasant Hill Memorial Park and Mortuary in Sebastopol. Donations may be made to the Hazel Thompson Memorial Scholarship Fund in care of any branch of Exchange Bank. The fund will benefit 4-H members.
Yoshio Sugioka
Yoshio "Yosh" Sugioka of Petaluma, who served with the Army in World War II and came home to sell feeds and foods for 40 years, died July 26. He was 83.
Work was hard to find for Sugioka following the war, family members said, because the military veteran was also a Japanese-American and for that reason was shunned by some potential employers. He took a job selling feed and seed for Sam Nissen in Petaluma.
After 16 years, Sugioka switched to the A&B Supermarket in Petaluma, where he worked 24 years as produce manager. He retired in 1982.
Sugioka was born in Hollister and reared in Cotati and Petaluma. He graduated from Petaluma High School and went on to the University of California at Davis.
His wife of 46 years, Shizuye Sugioka of Petaluma, said he always enjoyed hunting, fishing and football.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, Dwight Sugioka of Petaluma; and two sisters, Masaye Yamamoto and Sally Noguchi, both of San Francisco.
Services have been held, with arrangements handled by Parent-Sorensen Mortuary and Crematory. Interment was at Cypress Hill Memorial Park.
Donald Nelson Sr.
Donald Hans Nelson Sr. of Santa Rosa worked hard all his life, mostly on dairies, and eased up only when cancer began to sap his strength.
Nelson, who in recent years was a friendly presence at the Target store in Rohnert Park, died Sunday. He was 69.
"He didn't wear down until the very end," said his daughter Lisa Ann Slayton of Santa Rosa.
Her father was born in Santa Rosa and was 6 when he began working on his parents' dairy. He continued to labor at dairies until a few years ago, when he went to work moving stock at the Target store.
He unloaded trucks, moved pallets and stocked shelves. "He made friends with everybody who walked by," Slayton said.
Nelson loved gardening, and relished running into a friend and sitting for hours and talking.
His soul mate and the mother of his children, Betty Nelson of Santa Rosa, was at his side when he died Sunday.
In addition to Slayton, Nelson is survived by another daughter, Deborah Murphy of Santa Rosa; two sons, Donald Nelson Jr. of Petaluma and John Nelson of Oregon; three sisters, Cecilia Walker of Windsor and Corinne Anderson and Joann Cole, both of Vallejo; two brothers, Gordon Nelson of Missouri and Charles Fillman of Alaska; and nine grandchildren.
There will be no formal services. Inurnment will be private.
Nelson's family suggests memorial contributions to the American Cancer Society, 1451 Guerneville Road, Santa Rosa 95403.
