Educating generations of Petaluma’s youth

A retired school teacher who spent more than 30 years in front of classrooms, mostly in the one-room rural schoolhouses of Marin County, Patty Thompson Pomi had always known that she wanted to teach and remained true to her calling.|

Patty Thompson Pomi is very grateful that of all the places her parents could have chosen to move to from their home state of Iowa in 1954, they selected a scenic Petaluma poultry ranch on the edge of town. Her father, Tommy Thompson, had always wanted to operate his own chicken ranch and was eager to leave his job with DeKalb Feeds and take over the historic Hardin Ranch, near enough to Waugh School, despite a hill or two, for Patty and her siblings, Ken and Barbara to walk or ride their bikes to school.

A retired school teacher, who spent more than 30 years in front of classrooms, mostly in the one-room rural schoolhouses of Marin County, Pomi had always known that she wanted to teach and remained true to her calling.

Socially involved, cheerful and engaging, she participated in Camp Fire Girls and Rainbow Girls, which led to forming lifetime friendships with girls from every corner of town. Her admiration for teachers, coupled with a natural ability to communicate with others, helped steer her toward her career in education, which she’d been planning since she was 13 years old. A 1965 graduate of Petaluma High, she majored in English at Sonoma State University and obtained her teaching credential in 1970.

It was through her acquaintance with Two Rock Elementary School principal Helen Putnam, who was serving her first term as Petaluma’s mayor at the time, that she was one of three new teachers hired for the 1970-71 school year, and assigned to teach the fourth grade. But near the end of her first year, the Two Rock Ranch Army Base was converted to the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center resulting in a downsizing at the Two Rock school and she was let go.

Everything worked out well though, with Pomi getting hired as a substitute teacher, a position she held for the next 14 years, subbing not only at Two Rock, but also at Nicasio School and the three remaining one-room elementary schools in Marin; Lincoln, Union and Laguna.

In 1968, she and fourth-generation dairy rancher Ron Pomi, friends since the eighth grade at Kenilworth Junior High, were married. While they attended college, the couple lived on several different ranches before moving to the picturesque Pomi ranch, established in 1906, where they raised their children, Mark and Kim.

Her career took a positive turn in 1986 when she was hired to teach kindergarten through 6th grade at Lincoln Elementary School, where enrollment fluctuated between 10 and 20 students.

“In the one-room school, it was just me, the kids, and the teacher’s aide, all day every day,” Pomi said. “I believed in giving the kids lots of field trips, to places like the farmer’s market, the zoo, and to Mrs. Grossman’s Company Store. We also held annual Christmas plays and end-of-the-year plays.”

Worn out and nearly exhausted from the decades of classroom teaching, Pomi decided she wanted to teach computer science, and in 2000, she began teaching computer classes at West Marin Elementary School in Point Reyes four days a week.

I’ve known Patty since we were kids in Sunday school but I got to know her better in our sixth-grade class at McKinley Elementary School when her family moved into town in 1958, after her father had sold the chicken ranch and took a job selling Purina Feed products.

Several years later, following another job switch, Tommy Thompson took over a portion of the Golden Eagle Mill at 200 B St. previously owned by the G.P. McNear Co. The landmark 100-year-old mill was severely damaged by a raging fire that lit up the night sky on July 4, 1967, forcing Thompson of business. The site was being considered for demolition in 1975, when real estate developer and fellow Argus-Courier columnist Skip Sommer stepped in with plans to transform the building into a collection of restaurants and shops called the Great Petaluma Mill.

Retired from teaching, Pomi has been taking pottery classes and recently completed training to become a volunteer caregiver with Hospice of Petaluma. She relishes the extra time she has to devote to her six grandchildren and a monthly gathering, with seven other couples, to play Pedro.

(Harlan Osborne’s column Toolin’ Around Town appears every two weeks. Contact him at harlan@sonic.net.)

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