Vince Ferriole
Vince Ferriole
Veteran educator, popular restaurateur and former Napa County supervisor Vince Ferriole died at his Napa home Thursday. He was 80 years old.
Ferriole served as District One supervisor for eight years, his term of office extending throughout the better part of the past decade.
During his tenure, Ferriole figured prominently in a number of important issues, including passage of a spate of land use regulations and development of a viable flood control program for the Napa River.
He also served on the boards of the Napa Sanitation District, Bay Area Air Quality Control District and Bay Conservation Development Commission during his terms of office as a supervisor.
Upon his retirement from local politics in 1998, Ferriole listed among his accomplishments the passage of the Measure A flood tax, the Mare Island conversion after the federal government's closure of Mare Island Naval Shipyard and defeat of the proposed Suscol Ridge Development south of Napa City limits.
After retirement, he helped develop the annual Hands Across the Valley fundraiser.
During World War II, Ferriole spent six years in the South Pacific where he fought in many of the theater's famous battles, including Midway, Saipan and Guadalcanal.
Following his military service, Ferriole earned a master's degree in education from San Francisco State in 1951 and went on to teach biology and general science for the Napa Unified School District for the next 26 years.
During that time, Ferriole opened a restaurant in Napa, the popular Vince's Smorgasbord, which he and members of his family operated until 1980.
Survivors include his widow, Mila Brooks, of Washington, D.C.; and three sons, Tim, of Desert Hot Springs, Thomas, of San Francisco, and Stephen, of Grand Junction, Colo. A sister, Julie Merandi, and nephew, Richard Merandi, both of Napa, also survive.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Richard Pierce Funeral Service. Neither visitation nor a public service will be scheduled, according to a spokesman for the funeral home.
This article about Vince Ferriole is from the Napa Register.
Vince Ferriole left his mark on Napa County by staying true to his lifelong belief that people should help others in need. That humanitarian focus was the common thread that connected him to all of the people he touched throughout his 80-year life.
That became apparent last Tuesday during a Board of Supervisors tribute for Ferriole, who died on May 23, 2002. Several speakers remembered Vince's caring nature. Brad Wagenknecht noted that Ferriole was "a person of contrast" throughout his life. For example, he was a World War II veteran who worked for peace in Vietnam. During his Peace Corps phase, the Napa Rotary Club sponsored a schoolhouse that he was building in the Dominican Republic, Environmental Management director Trent Cave recalled. Supervisor Mike Rippey remembered him as a local junior high school teacher 35 years ago, and later, as "a frustrated social worker."
Later, when he was a Napa restaurateur, he gave 19-year-old water salesman Bill Dodd a rough time — but a fair deal — while negotiating monthly service, Supervisor Dodd recalled.
When he ran for a seat on the board of supervisors, Ferriole innocently wanted to tout his friendship with former Gov. Jerry Brown, recalled Supervisor Mel Varrelman. Fortunately, Varrelman convinced the candidate he didn't need to be associated with "Governor Moonbeam."
As a county supervisor, Ferriole was remembered for his causes on behalf of the less fortunate.
"There was not one social cause he would not support," recalled County Administrator Jay Hull. "He was the ultimate liberal. He would spend, spend, spend and then find more money to spend some more. But he had a great capacity to suck you in to his charitable work. He had a magnetism that would even make conservative cynics buckle under his charm." "He was a very outspoken man, with great convictions — a person of causes," said former Supervisor Fred Negri.
"He always came up with new ideas," said Cave. "He kept us on our toes, always changing your perspective."
"His range of interests was amazing," recalled Donna DeWeerd, North Bay Employment director. "He was like a very interesting grandpa — he had a million stories, with a lot of lessons to draw from those stories."
"He was irascible and direct, and he extracted promises of what good we could do for people in this county," recalled prosecutor Lee Philipson.
"I remember when he wanted to clean the small creeks coming into the Napa River," remembered Jane Mosier. "He got a crew together and saved us from having a flood that year."
"He was perhaps the most generous man I ever met," said Rippey. "He had a truly good, generous heart," said Hull.
Even after he left office, Ferriole continued to attend community events, noted DA Gary Lieberstein. "He set a positive example for us all, to pursue things outside ourselves," said Supervisor Mark Luce.
Vince Ferriole was many things to many people.
To Hull, "he was an environmentalist, a water conservationist, a duck hunter, a friend of the river, a fisherman, a supporter of the annual AIDS walk and Hands Across the Valley, a cancer cure advocate and a cancer victim in the end. He was outspoken, opinionated, hard of hearing and sometimes irritable — but that was our Vince."
To Cave, "he was a teacher, a hunter, a restaurateur, golfer, politician, scientist, gambler, biologist, fund raiser and mentor."
To Wagenknecht, "he was a country club golfer who raised money for the very hungry and the neediest people in Napa County. He was a killer of Bambi, but an environmentalist; a most macho man but also one who walked hand in hand with AIDS sufferers."
The mosaic that was his life leaves a picture of a complex person who had a simple goal: To improve the human condition.
Today, as city, county and state budgets for social services continue to decline, that quality in leaders is needed more than ever.
Vince Ferriole improved life in Napa County, and he will be missed.