Hundreds honor Blanchard

About 300 people gathered Tuesday at Santa Rosa City Hall to pay tribute to Mayor Bob Blanchard, who died Saturday of cancer.

“We salute him today in gratitude and love,” said Councilman John Sawyer, acting mayor.

Local leaders, including Police Chief Ed Flint, District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua, Petaluma Mayor Pamela Torliatt, members of the Rohnert Park City Council and others, filled the City Council chambers to recognize Blanchard.

Blanchard, 70, was praised for being an enthusiastic civic leader and community cheerleader.

Most of all, Blanchard was welcoming, said Dan Flock, with the city’s Cultural Heritage Board.

“He was simple, approachable, with a warm joviality,” Flock said. “He was extremely approachable even in the thorniest of circumstances.”

Representatives from myriad boards, commissions, agencies and associations eulogized Blanchard with personal remembrances both poignant and humorous.

When Nancy Wong, president of the Redwood Empire Chinese Association, said that when she traveled with Blanchard to China on a Sister Cities trip, he had a special request.

“He wanted to see the water treatment plant, to compare,” Wong said.

Others also remembered Blanchard’s cheerfully competitive spirit, but it was his role as a mentor to dozens of community leaders that speakers recalled most fondly.

“I was always amazed at his ability to move in and out of circles of people,” Sawyer said. “He was a friend and a colleague and a mentor, a counselor, one of the most humorous, elegant, dignified, honorable men I will ever have the pleasure of knowing.”

Blanchard’s children, Cameron and Matt Blanchard attended the event, collecting the plaques, proclamations, photos and certificates that many cities and organizations had prepared for the family in recognition of his service to Sonoma County.

Cameron Blanchard said among the last words her father shared was to insist that whatever service was held in his memory, “make sure they don’t blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”

“He wanted people to tell funny stories,” she said, as she rose to thank the dozens of speakers among the several hundred who gathered to honor her father for doing just that.

“As we continue to remember him, continue to laugh and joke. That’s what he would have wanted,” she said.