Monthly Archives: March 2016

Beloved former mayor Dennis Kennedy, whose passion for the future of Morgan Hill was as much a hobby as a livelihood, died Monday night after a 10-month battle with brain cancer.Before Kennedy became mayor of Morgan Hill in 1992, he spent several years influencing the city’s growth control measures that continue to determine at what rate the city will grow. Those who knew Kennedy best say he lives on in this work—and in his leadership in recreation services—that make Morgan Hill the unique, tight-knit community that residents enjoy.“He was a great man,” said Morgan Hill resident Bernie Mulligan who has known Kennedy for nearly 40 years. The two met and quickly became friends during early discussions of “Measure E,” the first version of the population-capping ordinance that was ultimately approved by voters in the late 1970s. Numerous subsequent updates of this ordinance have won at the polls in the decades since.“It’s a tremendous loss to his family and friends, and even more so, it’s a tragic loss to our entire community,” Mulligan added. “His imprint is all over this town, no matter where you go. He will long be remembered.”Kennedy, 77, died about 8:15 p.m. March 28 at his home in east Morgan Hill. His son Matthew Kennedy, 45, was by his side.Matthew Kennedy conveyed a statement to the Times through family friend and former Kennedy campaign manager Swanee Edwards: “I know Dad was special to the community, and he was very special to me personally. He was so loving and so gentle, yet at the same time he was so powerful. He treated everyone as an equal. Dad would respect the dignity of all humans regardless of their station in life. I am so proud of him and I loved him so much.”As mayor, Kennedy was a relentless advocate for the use of Redevelopment funds to build public recreation facilities that remain highly popular, and even integral to the character of Morgan Hill.In December 2015, despite his declining health, Kennedy appeared as the honored guest at a ceremony held by current city officials to rename the Morgan Hill Dennis Kennedy Aquatics Center. Kennedy, as mayor in 2003, led the effort to develop the Aquatics Center as a premier swimming facility with the help of the city council and RDA.“It blows me away,” Kennedy told the Times at the Dec. 4 ceremony, as he referred to the outpouring of admiration before him. “I never expected anything like this. There are so many wonderful people in our area. I find it overwhelming.”Today’s generation of South County public officials often describe Kennedy as a “mentor.” Current Mayor Steve Tate, who has known Kennedy since he coached Matthew’s youth soccer team, described the former mayor as the “guiding light” for the construction of the city’s robust recreation facilities program, which includes not only the swim center but also the Community and Cultural Center as well as the Centennial Recreation Center.“People have always loved living in our city, and he’s a huge part of the reason why that’s true,” Tate said. “He’s always a respectful gentleman, and to me he was a great mentor. I’m going to miss him.”Distinguished careerA professional mechanical engineer by trade, Kennedy worked for IBM for 25 years—before embarking on a public service career that would make him a South County legend. He later worked for the construction firm Parsons Corporation for about seven years as a project manager.His resume of volunteer leadership and community service work is exhaustive. Kennedy was an American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley senior fellow, a member of Rotary Club of Morgan Hill, past president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association and the Morgan Hill Sister Cities committee. He was the winner of the 2007 Morgan Hill Leadership Excellence Award. In 2015, he was honored by Gavilan College with the Lifetime Community Spirit Award.Kennedy served as mayor of Morgan Hill from 1992 to 2006. Tate recalls volunteering as his campaign manager for his successful run at a city council seat in the late 1980s. “Neither of us knew what we were doing,” Tate joked. And before he was elected to office, Kennedy served on the city planning commission.After he retired as mayor, Kennedy worked as a consultant and continued volunteering for the community. He was a member of the Morgan Hill Times editorial board for several years.Kennedy re-entered the political stage in 2013, when the board of directors of the Santa Clara Valley Water District appointed him to fill the seventh seat on that governing body. He completed the term of exiting SCVWD Director Don Gage, and won election to the seat in November 2014. On Nov. 4, 2015, Kennedy resigned from the SCVWD board due to health complications related to a brain tumor. He was diagnosed with the tumor in June 2015.Kennedy asked Edwards, a San Martin resident, to be his campaign manager when he decided to run for election to the SCVWD board in 2014. Edwards knew Kennedy for about 15 years, and also led his last campaign for mayor. She said he was not in pain when he died.“He’s gone through a lot of personal tragedies in his life here in Morgan Hill, but he changed the city,” Edwards said. “He was probably one of the best men I have ever met. I’m going to dedicate the rest of my life to following up on his work if I can.”Words of praiseClaudia Rossi, a Santa Clara County Board of Education board member who began her political career as a Morgan Hill Unified trustee, added that Kennedy experienced “such a joyful life.” He had his pilot’s license and completed a competitive swim to Alcatraz in San Francisco a few years ago. Kennedy inspired Rossi to join the Rotary Club, and was selfless in his consideration of others.“He spent more time talking about the qualities and leadership of others, and not about his own. We’re better because he was with us,” Rossi said.Santa Clara County Supervisor Mike Wasserman, who represents the area that includes South County on the board, has long recognized Dennis Kennedy’s leadership and influence. “I am saddened to hear that former Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy passed away last night,” Wasserman posted on his Facebook page March 29. “Dennis was a popular and effective leader, who cared deeply about people.”Former City Manager Ed Tewes, who served as City Hall’s top staff person through a portion of Kennedy’s time as mayor, called him a “key figure” in shaping what Morgan Hill is now.“He was a great mayor who served in a transitional period,” Tewes said. “He had started his service as things were getting mixed up and toxic on the city council. He brought calm and progressive policies to Morgan Hill.”Kennedy counted swimming, water skiing and golf among his hobbies. He was often seen on the golf course with his faithful dog Nika, who died December 2015, riding in the cart with him. But Kennedy was just as happy spending his free time talking about and planning for the future of Morgan Hill.“We’d sit here at the bar at my house and talk about whatever we need to do” to ensure Morgan Hill didn’t suffer from the “unbridled” growth that was occurring in nearby cities, Mulligan recalled of the early days of his friendship with Kennedy. Some of these evening discussions lasted into the early morning. “I remember how tenacious he would be in wanting to keep Morgan Hill as a small town. And it has worked for years.”Mulligan and Kennedy also traveled extensively together as colleagues on the Sister Cities board. “He and I are the only two that have been to all five of Morgan Hill’s sister cities,” in Japan, Italy, Ireland, Mexico and Turkey, Mulligan said.Family and friends are planning a public celebration of Kennedy’s life in the coming weeks, Edwards added. Details will be announced.

A celebration of life is being planned for Ray, Saturday, April 30th, 2016, Please contact JoAnne Perez Robinson for details at: jozart819@gmail.com.

 Services will be held on Saturday, April 9, 2016, at 11:00 A.M., at Mission San Juan Bautista. Burial will follow at San Juan Bautista Cemetery.

 Funeral was held last week.

Visitation Friday, April 8, 2016 - 2:00 P.M., at Habing Family Funeral Home. Then to St. Mary’s Cemetery for Graveside Services at 3:00 P.M. Reception to follow. Donations to your favorite charity preferred. Condolences at HabingFamilyFuneralHome.com.

The Family is asking the community and friends for donations so that she may be laid to rest in peace. All donations are appreciated at Habing Funeral Home under Catherine Dobro.

He was by all accounts the perfect firefighter, a good husband and dad, a quiet man of strength and courage who never boasted, loved toy trains and put his life on the line for others.And Ruben Gomez also was the first Hispanic firefighter in Alameda County.In the on-again, off-again rainstorm of March 11, they laid Fire Capt. Gomez to rest in Gilroy, the town in which he was raised, one of 18 children. He was 82.So special was his memory to those with whom he served in the Alameda Fire Department for 26 years that more than two dozen of its active and retired firefighters attended the funeral at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church on First Street.And although Gomez had retired to San Martin in 1991, a gleaming red Alameda Fire Department ladder truck made the 90-minute drive to Gilroy to represent that city’s appreciation for his long service, which included an award for valor for risking his own life to save a brother firefighter’s life. It was an incident he never even mentioned to his family until it came out in an awards ceremony, to his wife’s great surprise.Members of Gomez’s family, including four children, some of his 12 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and scores of friends filled the church for the funeral Mass and the burial at St. Mary Cemetery.“He was such a kind man,” said his wife of 62 years, Melicia, 79, who’s known as Millie. They met at a dance in Gilroy, after her future husband had moved with his family to California from El Paso, Texas, in 1942 and she had moved to Gilroy from Brawley.Ruben Gomez graduated from Gilroy High School in 1953; he and Millie were married the same year at St. Mary’s Church.His widow described Ruben as a man who loved dancing, from Mexican to swing, and looked forward each year to a hunting trip with fellow firefighters to Colorado or Idaho.“Hunting season, that was his thing,” she said, adding, “It was just wonderful for him to go.”His other love was toy trains, which he collected with relish, scouring yard sales and flea markets for collectable engines and cars, according to his family.Daughter Maria Gomez, 51, of Morgan Hill agreed, describing her dad as dark-haired, light-skinned with brownish-greenish eyes and always on the thin side.“He was very quiet and very strict with us kids. He came from a generation that did not show a lot of emotion” so he showed his love and affection by doing for others, she said.In her case, it was to teach her all he knew about working around the house and on cars, to the point that she loved doing mechanical work on her own car and knew he’d be quick to pitch in, saying, “get out of the way, you’ll make a mess,” she said.He bought Maria her first car, a 1955 Chevrolet, when she was 12. She said she still has it.“That is how he showed affection, by doing things for you; he was always willing to help someone out,” she said.The couple’s other children are Barbara Burrows of Livermore, Ruben Gomez, Jr. of Van Nuys and David Gomez of San Martin.Gomez was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease six years ago and it took his life, Maria Gomez said.After marrying, the newlyweds moved to Oakland, and later to Hayward, where Gomez worked for Babcock Manufacturing, a fabricator of workshop vises. It was there that a foreman urged him to take the test for the Alameda Fire Department.He was hired in 1964 but kept working part-time for Babcock and worked the two jobs until he retired in 1991, Maria said.“He’d walk in the house in his fire department uniform and go into his room and come out in his street clothes and go to his part-time job,” she said, recalling their days in Hayward.When her parents in 1991 wanted to  “come home” to South County and relocated to San Martin, she followed them to Morgan Hill, Maria said.And while he never boasted or bragged about it, she said the family is very proud of the fact that he was the first Hispanic firefighter in Alameda County.“There was still a lot of prejudice at that time,” she said.By all accounts, Ruben Gomez had a reputation for selfless courage on the fire line, a great sense of humor with his brother firefighters—and for being a terrific cook in the firehouse.None of which he shared with his family.He was quiet and reserved, Maria said, and he never shared in kitchen duties at home. So it came as a complete surprise when his fellow firefighters revealed he had a terrific sense of humor, cooked the best Mexican food and earned a medal for valor in the line of duty.The latter went unknown to his family until Ruben told Millie they had to attend an awards ceremony—where, it turned out, he received a medal of valor for pulling an unconscious partner from a burning and smoke-filled building.Millie Gomez recounted how her husband and his partner were nearly overcome by smoke in the pitch-black dark of the building and had to feel their way along the walls for an exit. After making it out and to a nearby fence, Ruben turned to see his partner was not behind him. He returned to the burning building and, groping in the dark, located his unconscious partner and pulled the man to safety, she said. At the ceremony, his tearful partner thanked Gomez for saving his life.At the Alameda Fire Department, Chief Doug Long remembered Gomez as “very competent and knowledgeable man, quiet and soft spoken” and someone people liked to be around. He was held in the highest regard, Chief Long said.Long and Gomez served together for three years during Gomez’s tenure from August 15, 1964 to Oct. 1, 1991.So devoted was he to the fire service that his widow wanted him to be buried in his fire captain’s jacket, but was terribly conflicted because she also wanted to keep the jacket among the memories of her husband.She asked if the jacket could be put on her husband for the funeral, then be returned to her before the burial, but was told that to put the garment on him it would have to be cut all the way up the back and fitted onto him. She could not do that to the jacket.Maria Gomez said that after she shared her mother’s quandary with the Alameda Fire Department, three firefighters sent their own jackets to be used, her aunt did a few alterations on one, including making copies of adornments specific to her father’s uniform, and Capt. Ruben Gomez, Alameda County’s first Hispanic firefighter, was buried in one those.  

Take a drive down any stretch of U.S. 101 south of San Jose and your nose will lead you to Gilroy. Famous for its aromatic allium, the garlic bulb, any Gilroyan will tell you it’s first thing they smell when they open their door. I’m a big fan of this pungent bulb. Aside from its obvious culinary uses, garlic has an abundance of health benefits. And, if you’ve ever forgotten to cut back your curly edible garlic-scapes, they make a beautiful flower.

Before you plant those homegrown seedlings or fragrant plants from the UCCE Master Gardeners’ Spring Garden Market (Saturday, April 16 at History Park in San Jose), do you have what it takes to make your garden successful?