GILROY—Four men who have contributed to making Gilroy what it is today will be inducted Nov. 7 into the newly resurrected Gilroy Hall of Fame.
Two of them, plus former Mayor Sig Sanchez, 94, will bring to three the number of living members of the honored group.
The new inductees-in-waiting are Don Christopher, Glenn Goldsmith, Bob Kraemer and Dale Connell, the latter two deceased.
After the ceremony at Old City Hall, the list will include 124 men and women whose lives span two centuries of Gilroy history and parts of two others—from 1790 to 2015.
All the newly named members were chosen from among nine nominee applications received by the Hall of Fame Committee of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce, according to Kurt Michielssen of the committee.
The brainchild of Gilroyan Bob Dyer, the Gilroy Hall of Fame began in 1983 as a way for the community to honor citizens, some of them born 50 years or more before Gilroy was incorporated in the mid-1800s. All were deemed to have made a lasting contribution to the town. Initially, the honor was reserved for the deceased, but later was opened up also to the living.
Sanchez, who turns 95 on November 11, was inducted in 1991. A farmer who continued to be active in agriculture even as his political star climbed, he is a former Gilroy mayor, Santa Clara County supervisor and South County representative to the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the latter for 31 years.
He was first elected to the city council in 1953. The son of Spanish immigrants who came to the United States as children, and the grandson of grandparents who cut sugar cane on the Hawaiian islands on their way to America, Sanchez has lived in Gilroy since 1943 and is retired.
“You could not have picked a better foursome,” he said of the quartet that will join him on the plaques at city hall that have the names of every Hall of Fame member.
Here, from the committee, are brief biographies of the soon-to-be hall of fame members:
Don Christopher
Born in San Jose in 1934, the well-known garlic grower, owner of Christopher Ranch and philanthropist attended Oak Grove School in San Jose, Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill and San Jose State University.
Christopher Ranch, founded in 1956 with his brother, Art, established a national reputation as the country’s top family-owned garlic producer. In 1979, Christopher, former Gavilan Community College President Rudy Malone and Val Filice, launched the first Gilroy Garlic Festival, He was Festival president from 1979 to 1981.
He donated 10 acres of land to the Gilroy Unified School District for a new high school and, in 2008, Christopher and his wife, Karen, donated funds earmarked as seed money to launch student activities such as the yearbook, transportation for student athletics, the student store and more.
They donated $3.8 million for construction of the Don Christopher Sports Complex at Christopher High School and established a $1.7 million endowment for the educational needs at CHS. He has also helped buy vehicles, school supplies and improvement for sports facilities at Gilroy High School.
Glenn Goldsmith
Born in 1928, Goldsmith built a business from scratch in the mid 1960s into an internationally recognized horticultural business, Goldsmith Seeds. His legacy can be seen as the bright colorful gardens on the south side of Highway 152 in west Gilroy. What is now SYNGENTA, started as Glenn and his wife, Jane, recognized that Gilroy’s soil and climate are ideal for the growth of seedlings. The company became synonymous with flowers, so much so that there was a question in the Trivial Pursuit game that said A is to B as Goldsmith is to flowers.
Goldsmith was not just a steward of nature; he was a philanthropist to his community. Every spring, representatives of the flower wholesale industry would come from all over the world to see the Goldsmith’s new varieties of geraniums and other flowers. All the flowers from the show were donated by the Goldsmiths to the Rotary Club of Gilroy to sell to the community at bargain prices.
The Chamber of Commerce named Glenn its 1990 Man of the Year for his business and philanthropic contributions to Gilroy.
Bob Kraemer
Bob Kraemer was born in Jamaica, New York. After college he was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in the U.S. Army. He was wounded in Vietnam and received the Silver Star and Purple Heart medals, leaving the Army as a Major in 1970.
Kraemer moved with his family to Gilroy in 1971 and became involved in community service that lasted until his death in 2008.
He worked at Gilroy Foods in quality control and later on the cogeneration plant, completed in 1989 with Bechtel and PG&E.
He was the first Mr. Garlic, a founder of Boy Scout Troop 711 and recipient of the Boy Scout’s highest adult leader award, the Silver Beaver.
He was in Rotary, was a board member and president of Leadership Gilroy and was a director of the Gilroy Foundation.
In 1999, Kraemer was appointed to the Gilroy school board and won election in 2000. He was the Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year in 2003 and president and chairman of the board of Gilroy Gardens. Kramer and his wife, Joanne, established an endowment that pays for Gilroy students to participate in natural science activities at Gilroy Gardens.
Dale Connell
Connell was born 1914 in Alexandria, South Dakota. He served in the Pacific during World War II in the U.S. Navy as a chief motor machinist. In 1947 he and his wife, Ruth, moved to Gilroy and opened an auto parts store. He joined the Rotary Club of Gilroy, serving two terms as president. Dale went into real estate in the 1950s and was also elected to the Gilroy Unified School District board of trustees.
Connell earned his teaching credential at age 52. He volunteered at community schools and taught real estate-related classes at Gavilan College. Honoring more than five decades of community service and leadership, Connell was named the Chamber of Commerce’s Man of the Year in 1998. He supported numerous nonprofits including the Gilroy Foundation, Theater Angels, Gilroy Downtown Association and the Suzuki Violin Program.
Connell died in 2013 and left a legacy to Gilroy’s schoolchildren with an endowment of more than $1.1 million for music education.
