College names fire tower after Santa Clara family
Plus, Commonwealth Club’s Duffy reflects on long friendship with former U.S. Secretary of State Rice
Mission College has dedicated its threestory fire-training tower in honor of the Von Raesfeld family, a perfect choice given the family’s history in both Santa Clara and the Bay Area firefighting scene.
“The Von Raesfeld family has been committed to service in Santa Clara and the region for generations,” Mission College President Daniel Peck said at the dedication ceremony Thursday. “Their dedication to saving lives truly inspires future generations of first responders.”
The onetime owner of the Coast to Coast hardware store, Don Von Raesfeld Sr. had a five-decade record of public service with the Mission City, starting in the public works department before he served as city manager from 1960 to 1985.
He followed that up with a four-year term on the City Council that ended in 1992. Recent arrivals to Silicon Valley might not be familiar with his name, but you’re probably familiar with some of the places that sprouted in Santa Clara north of 101 during Von Raesfeld’s tenure: the Santa Clara Convention Center, California’s Great America and Mission College itself.
Three of the family’s nine children had an even stronger connection to Mission College: sons Darryl, Myron and Marty all went through the fire-training program there. The fire tower is the only one in the state used for a college firetech program between Santa Rosa and Monterey.
Darryl Von Raesfeld spent
33 years with the San Jose Fire Department, including serving as chief from 2006 to 2010, when he retired.
Marty Von Raesfeld, who worked in the Redwood City Fire Department for a time, retired in 2015 after nearly 20 years as Santa Clara’s fire marshal.
And today, Myron Von Raesfeld is best known for his real estate business, but he also served with the Oakland Fire Department in the 1980s.
Many family members flew in from Arizona for the ceremony, which was attended by both Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor and her father, former Mayor Gary Gillmor, who gave an impromptu speech about his longtime friend, Don Sr.
Given the pair’s long history in Santa Clara, it seems fitting that the Von Raesfeld Family Fire Tower is on campus not far from the Gillmor Center classroom building.
CONVERSATION BETWEEN FRIENDS >> The Commonwealth Club is featuring former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Santa Clara Convention Center on Wednesday, and Commonwealth Club CEO Gloria Duffy will have more material to draw on for the conversation than just the two women’s shared expertise in international relations.
Rice and Duffy’s friendship goes back more than 30 years to when they shared a house while they were fellows in Stanford’s arms control program in the early 1980s.
“There were only four women in the program, so we called ourselves the ‘fellow-ettes,’” said Duffy, who remembers tickling the ivories on a piano that Rice rented and dueling it out on the tennis courts.
They were frequently in contact over the years, staying friends despite their divergent political views: Duffy served in the Clinton White House, while Rice’s stint as secretary of state was under President George W. Bush. They also both remained close with Chip Blacker, who was the program’s assistant director at the time and just retired from Stanford.
Attendees at the talk shouldn’t expect to hear a lot of campus tales, but Duffy said, “I will bring out some stories that I think people will find interesting. For an audience, what I try to do is share a bit of what I know and draw them out in some ways they might not be expecting.”
Tickets to the 7 p.m. event, “Condoleezza Rice: To Build a Better World,” are $10-$55 and can be purchased at commonwealthclub.org.
CLIMATE FOR READING >> Jonathan Franzen’s essay in The New Yorker about climate change has been catching a lot of heat in some corners for the author of “The End of the End of the Earth.” So it’ll be interesting to see if he addresses the topic Friday when he is the featured speaker at the launch party for San Jose State’s “Reed Magazine — Issue 152” at the Hammer Theatre Center. The 7 p.m. event, hosted by the Center for Literary Arts, is free to attend, but admission to a VIP reception afterward is $5 for students and $10 for everyone else. Go to litart.org/jonathanfranzen for details.
And another literary-related event at the Hammer this week will feature Oscar Vasquez, one of the young men featured in “Spare Parts,” Joshua Davis’ book about four undocumented teenagers and their quest to win a robotics competition in 2004. The book is the featured selection of SJSU’S Campus Reading Program this year, and Vasquez will talk about his experiences as well as his time in the U.S. military and his life as an engineer in Texas. The talk is at noon Monday and is open to the public.
SENIOR SUMMIT >> Santa Clara County residents are living longer, which means the community needs to prepare for taking care of a much larger older population in the near future. Santa Clara County Supervisors Dave Cortese and Cindy Chavez are hosting a two-hour hearing Wednesday that will cover topics related to aging, including transportation, care-giving, LGBT issues, volunteerism and improved outreach.
Registration is not required for the hearing, which is co-sponsored by the county’s Department of Aging & Adult Services and starts at 6:30 p.m. in the board chambers.
LINCOLN LAW SCHOOL TURNS 100 >> A Centennial Dinner was held at the Silicon Valley Capital Club on Thursday night to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Lincoln Law School in San Jose.
The school counts many prominent figures among its alumni, including Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith, former San Jose councilwoman and current Santa Clara Valley Water District board member Linda Lezotte, former San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore, County Supervisor Cortese and Telemundo correspondent Patricia Castorena. The school’s current dean, Laura Palazzolo, is also a Lincoln alum and spent most of her two-decade law career as a civil litigator with San Jose firm Berliner Cohen.