Vincent Fogle
January 23, 1937 - August 29, 2022
Vincent was born to Cecil Francis Fogle and Marjorie Musson Fogle in his Preacher father’s car, stranded all night in a river during Ohio’s great flood of 1937. This challenging birth was the start of an extraordinary existence of many lives, like a cat’s.
His life took a calamitous turn when he lost his musical mother at age ten. A singer with his two sisters from early childhood, he grew up performing. As a teenager with his excellent bass-baritone he sang in school musicals and in Summer Stock. Vincent also worked on his grandparents’ farm and later on California farms.
Army language school in California led to his being a Russian interpreter in Army Intelligence during the Cold War, in Germany. He interviewed defectors in Russian and German — an exciting and dangerous position where he thrived.
He returned to California to further his studies, and worked many jobs from grading tomatoes to a position with Aerojet. He earned multiple advanced degrees; as a grad student at UC Davis he spearheaded the construction of the new Sports Palace, a personal tour de force. He ended up as a PhD professor in soil sciences and plant physiology. Through all these years he continued to sing and to lead choruses; to devote himself to his family; to work on his houses; to grow flowers; and to keep animals and unusual birds. He cultivated his interest in opera, first singing in opera choruses and then as President of a small but influential East Bay opera company.
Vincent was an athlete, and a lifelong runner. While teaching at UC Davis he ran daily to work from his home in Woodland, fifteen miles each way, often with marathons on the weekend. If there was a mountain near where he found himself, he ran up it. Where the Sacramento Valley was flat, he ran through agricultural fields, adding freeway ramps for a little altitude. By the time he lived on his boat with his cats in the Berkeley Marina, when he wasn’t working on his music or rescuing sea birds, his favorite run was straight up to the Regional Parks in the Berkeley hills, and back down to the Bay. Once settled in the Oakland hills, he constructed a deer-feeding station with manger and grain bins, using no nails. His creations were always original. When a neighbor sent a sheriff to make him dismantle the feeding area, the tenderhearted man wept along with his partner.
Vincent loved his Shakespeare Club and his gym. Books were a passion, and he amassed a collection of first editions and many series in various genres. He was progressive and a problem solver with an extraordinary intelligence and a need for mental stimulation.
He is survived by his four children, Jennifer Jackson and Rebecca Ruff, both of Emmett, ID; Cynthia Sidener of Woodland, CA; Clifford Fogle; and several grandchildren. He leaves behind his partner of 25 years, Emily Jurs Sparks of Oakland.
His one adamant request was for no funeral or memorial. Ever the scientist, he donated his remains to UCSF Medical Education. In lieu of flowers, consider the UCSF Willed Body Program at www.ucsf.edu which Emily has just done with hers.