Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Sunday, September 10, 2006 at 06:10:03 :
San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, November 7, 2001
A 21
Robert A. Roumiguiere, 76, prominent Marin politician
by Erik Ingram, Chronicle Staff Writer
Robert A. Roumiguiere, an influential civic leader who served 22 years on the Marin County Board of Supervisors, died unexpectedly Monday afternoon of a heart attack. He was 76.
Mr. Roumiguiere was closing his summer cabin on the Eel River near Covelo in Mendocino County when he collapsed and died while doing yard work.
"It's a tremendous loss," said Tom Campanella, a former Marin County administrator and close friend. "He was a good friend of the employees and the public in ways most people will never know. He wasn't afraid of taking an unpopular position. He was that kind of guy."
Mr. Roumiguiere was born in San Francisco in 1925, raised in San Anselmo, and during high school rode the train each day to Tamalpais High in Mill Valley.
After the start of World War II, he worked at Marinship in Sausalito before joining the Navy and serving in the Pacific with the Seabees, the Navy's legendary construction battalion.
Following the war, he returned home to attend the College of Marin and California Polytechnic College at San Luis Obispo, where he earned his degrees in dairy husbandry and business administration.
He then started a dairy near Paso Robles but after three years sold his interests and returned to Marin County, where he began a long career in real estate and earned a reputation as an expert in putting together complex transactions.
It was a talent that served him well after his friend, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, appointed him in 1972 to fill the unexpired term of a county supervisor who died in office.
During his first years in office, Mr. Roumiguiere was targeted by Marin's slow-growth forces because of his ties to the real estate industry. That opposition evaporated over time, however, as he helped create the Marin Open Space District, and then worked with neighborhood groups to protect hundreds of acres of scenic ridgetops from San Rafael to Novato. He was also credited with persuading the state to create China Camp State Park from private lands the owners wanted to develop.
He considered his other major achievements to be the widening of Highway 101 through central Marin, helping preserve the Northwestern Pacific Railroad right-of-way for future commuter use and construction of a new jail. The jail was so controversial that no supervisor other than Mr. Roumiguiere would put his name on the dedication plaque.
He was re-elected five times by his San Rafael-area constituents and served until 1994, making him one of the county's longest-serving supervisors. He continued to serve on the Marin County Employee Retirement Board until his death.
After leaving the board of supervisors, he lived primarily in Lake County, where he and his wife, Barbara, had bought a vineyard in 1979 and formed Roumiguiere Vineyards. Today there are four ranches with collectively more than 500 acres planted in varietals.
In the last several years, Mr. Roumiguiere became involved in forming the Lake County Wine Grape Commission to promote the county's wine grape industry. In addition to a home in Lakeport, he also kept a home in San Rafael.
Besides his wife of 49 years, Mr. Roumiguiere is survived by son Rob and daughter-in-law Dina Roumiguiere and son John and daughter-in-law Donna Roumiguiere, all of Lake County, Marc Roumiguiere of Santa Rosa, Audrey D. Roumiguiere of Greenbrae and Lynn Roumiguiere Hodgkinson of Sonoma. He is also survived by six grandchildren: Robert, Matthew, Justin, Joni and Jenna Roumiguiere and Barbara Hodgkinson.
A celebration memorial will be held Monday at 4 p.m. at the Marin County Veterans Memorial Auditorium, located at the county Civic Center in San Rafael.
The family requests memorial contributions be sent to the Hospice of Marin, 150 Nellen Avenue, Corte Madera, or the Marin Council of the Boy Scouts of America, 225 West End Avenue, San Rafael.
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