Howard "Howie" Ehret, a career Navy officer who retired to become a tireless organizer and volunteer in the city of Sonoma, died Sunday from complications related to intestinal surgery and cancer. He was 70.
Howard C. Ehret was born May 22, 1941 in Oakland.
After graduating from U.C. Berkeley in 1962, Ehret spent three decades in the military, criss-crossing the globe on ships and submarines before arriving in Sonoma as the last commander of the former Navy base at Skaggs Island.
For Ehret, retirement in 1992 wasn't a chance to put up his heels, but an opportunity to become part of a community in a way that had been impossible as a constantly moving officer.
"I spent 30 years defending the American way of life," he said in an interview last year. "Now I wanted to participate in it."
His home near the center of downtown Sonoma served as a metaphor for his life. If it was going on in Sonoma, odds were good Ehret was in the middle of it.
His involvements ran from advocating for a parcel tax for Sonoma Valley Hospital to mentoring newcomers at the Rotary Club of Sonoma Valley to serving on the board of the Sonoma Community Center.
His most prominent role may have been as the longtime logistical mastermind behind the community center's annual ox roast, which draws thousands of people to the central plaza each June.
The roast features giant slabs of barbecued round — more than 1,000 pounds of meat is served along with nearly 2,000 ears of corn — requiring scores of volunteers and months of planning, all organized as recently as this year by Ehret.
"He was the person who drove the engine," said Kathy Swett, the community center's executive director. "He really was the hub."
In 2000, the City of Sonoma honored Ehret as its annual alcalde — Spanish for mayor — giving him a key to the city in recognition for his work.
But accolades weren't the norm for Ehret, who practically strained to avoid the limelight no matter how much he deserved it, said attorney William Shea, who was president of Rotary when Ehret joined two decades ago.
"He was just one of those almost perfect people that you want as a member of any organization," Shea said. "He just got in, got his hands dirty, did the work and then stepped away and left somebody else to take the bows."
Ehret also helped run the Holly Ehret Memorial Leadership Foundation, established in honor of his 21-year-old daughter who was hit by a truck and killed in 1991 while on a cross-country bike ride to raise money for charity. Each year the foundation gives thousands of dollars to students from Sonoma Valley High School.
Ehret's loss gave him an understanding of the pain of losing a child. In 2005, after Shea's son Timothy, an Army Ranger, was killed in Iraq, Ehret brought him meals near nightly for six months.
"He said &‘You have to eat,'" Shea said. "It wasn't requested. It wasn't for just 10 days. It was over a protracted period of time. I think that was directly related to his own loss."
"I'm not going to enjoy the world as much without him in it," Shea said.
He is survived by his wife Irene and son Steve of Occidental. A celebration of Ehret's life will be held in Sonoma in mid- to late-January. In lieu of flowers, Ehret's family requests donations be made in his honor to a list of organizations that will be released before the celebration.