Judith Ann O’Brien

career in Silicon Valley as a Senior Tech Recruiter, Judy enjoyed her retirement in Oregon cultivating her creative talents, advocating for social justice and the environment, playing card and board games with her many friends and family and doting on her granddaughter Hannah.

Judy loved all animals. But if you knew Judy, you knew she especially loved giraffes. This fantastical creature resonated with her spirit and brought her much joy. The family requests that donations be made to the B. Bryan Preserve Wildlife Foundation, Point Arena, CA which is committed to the preservation of African hoof stock. https://www. bbryanpreserve.com/

Robert Nicholas Ristad, Jr., “Nick”, died peacefully, surrounded by family and friends, at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Santa Rosa, California, on September 16, 2021.

He was born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, the son of Robert Nicholas Ristad, Sr. and Ella Schuette Ristad. When he was seven years old, his parents and younger sister, Paula, traveled by train to the Bay Area of California, where his father worked as a salesman for Corning Glass. He attended Palo Alto High School, and then went back to the Midwest to attend St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where his Norwegian-born grandfather, Ditlef G. Ristad, had been a leader in the Norwegian-American community. He graduated from St. Olaf in 1958.

Following college, Nick studied at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California, obtaining a Master of Divinity in 1962 and being ordained in the Lutheran Church in America. During seminary, he did clinical pastoral education for a summer at California’s San Quentin prison, where he discovered his calling to prison ministry. He also trained at Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, Juvenile Diagnostic Center in Sacramento, and Metropolitan State Hospital, Norwalk. He helped the Salvation Army set up a halfway house in Los Angeles for parolees from the California Department of Corrections and was the pastor at Luther Memorial Lutheran Church in Fresno, California, from 1964-1968. He worked as a program writer for San Hidalgo Mexican-American vocational training program in Oakland, and was assistant to the president and Director of Pastoral Training at San Leandro Memorial Hospital. From 1971-1987, Nick served as Protestant Chaplain and supervisor for Clinical Pastoral Education at California Medical Facility, the prison mental hospital in Vacaville. In 1987, he moved to become the Protestant Chaplain at Napa State Hospital, serving also as Supervisor for the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy, retiring in 2014. He was President of the California State Chaplains and on the California State Advisory Committee on Institutional Religion. He served on the Ordination Commission of the Lutheran Church in America. He was a Diplomate in the College of Pastoral Supervision and