Beloved veterinarian fostered deep Petaluma ties

Native Petaluman Fred Groverman has dedicated a lifetime of service to the community.|

Dr. Fred Groverman is feeling pretty chipper these days. The best he’s felt in a long time. For this surge in vitality and the 180-degree turnaround in his life, he credits his wife of two-and-a-half years, Lynge, for planting a nutritious vegetable garden, paying close attention to his diet, and teaching him to eat right. The results have been so dramatic in controlling his diabetes that he’s nearly off of his medicine.

“But that’s a whole nother story,” Groverman said, repeating a phrase he often uses as we skim the highlights of his life.

There are a lot stories from Groverman’s long and colorful life that would make for interesting reading and many of them have been written about in local publications, but there are still many more just waiting to be told. Those that know him all agree that a man who’s led such an interesting life and has so many inspiring stories to tell should be the subject of an entire book.

In a recent and delightful late morning conversation with the 82-year-old native Petaluman at his knoll-top home overlooking the rolling hills of the 50-acre sheep ranch that’s been in his family for 105 years, we discussed numerous subjects, ranging from his early childhood to his lifetime of service to the community.

As a beloved veterinarian, he’s touched the lives of many, from advising a child on the responsibilities of raising a new puppy to a distressed rancher who needed emergency animal care, Groverman offered comforting support, professionalism and compassion.

His knowledge and understanding of sheep is unparalleled and has been shared with generations of families. He’s a former director of the Sonoma County Fair and the Sonoma County 4-H foundation, past president of the American Shropshire Sheep Association and, along with his late wife Pat, is a member of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau Hall of Fame. A long-time member of the Petaluma Valley Hospital board, Groverman Hall is named in his honor.

From the hilltop home designed and built by him and his late wife in 1963, it’s hard to imagine that life wasn’t always easy for the Groverman’s, but those who grew up during the Depression realize that behind every success story is a determined nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic.

The Groverman legacy began in the late 1800s when Fred Groverman’s grandfather emigrated from Germany to San Francisco, where he drove a brewery wagon. Fred Groverman’s father, Bernard Groverman, was born in San Francisco in 1896. The family moved to a Petaluma ranch on Corona Road in 1908 and three years later bought 50 acres on Ormsby Lane where they raised 8,000 chickens. In 1927, Bernard Groverman married Ida Petersen and they became the parents of Elsa Groverman, born in 1930, and Frederick Groverman, born in 1933.

In 1934, the year that he helped found the Penngrove Volunteer Fire Department, Bernard Groverman purchased six Shropshire ewes. Raising sheep was more difficult than raising chickens, but the flock flourished. Working with veterinarians from University of California, Davis, Bernard Groverman developed a flock of open-faced ewes which were bred with a purebred Shropshire ram from England in 1950. The descendants of that flock are from the oldest flock of Shropshire sheep in the world. But that’s whole nother story.

A seriously committed hard worker from the age of 9, when he hand milked four to six cows every day and learned to drive a horse-drawn wagon, Fred Groverman knew he wanted to become a veterinarian after meeting with local vet Dr. Walter Brandner as a teenager.

Behind the accolades there’s also been challenges and hardship. Bernard Groverman died when Fred Groverman was just 17 years old, placing a heavy burden on Ida Groverman to maintain the chickens and to keep up with the lambing. And the devotion Fred Groverman showed while caring for his ill wife, and losing her after 54 years of marriage in 2011, nearly drained the life out of him, but he’s rebounded and enjoying life to the fullest.

One of the gloomiest days ever, he vividly recalls, was in 1942 when a neighboring Japanese ranching family, who had been here since the late 1800s, came by the Groverman house to say their tearful goodbyes on the day they were to be sent to a remote internment camp.

Injuries are a common hazard in the veterinary trade and Groverman suffered through more than his share. The short list includes torn rotator cuffs, a badly fractured leg caused by an angry ram and three joint replacement surgeries. But that’s a whole nother story.

Being in good health and doing the things he enjoys, like salmon fishing in Alaska with his wife, are what matter the most. He comes across like an old friend, completely comfortable in his surroundings and at the end of our visit, my notepad was brimming with topics. Too many for one column, but that’s a whole nother story. ?(Harlan Osborne’s column appears every two weeks. Contact him at harlan@sonic.net.)

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