SRJC renames gala, honoring the life of St. Francis Winery CEO

SRJC has renamed its the food and wine classic for Chris Silva and scheduled it for his birthday.|

The fantabulous Chris Silva, who talked himself into a job as a checker at the former Petrini’s market at age 15 and at 38 became president and CEO of St. Francis Winery, would be turning 54 on July 8.

Chris died nearly a year ago from a fast-growing brain cancer. He was proudest of his two kids, Sydney and Joseph; what his team at St. Francis accomplished; and of the grand wine-and-food gala he created for the benefit of wine studies, culinary and hospitality students at Santa Rosa Junior College.

The college has renamed the annual event the Christopher Silva SRJC Food and Wine Classic, and changed the date - from early February to Chris’ birthday. It also switched the location.

The Christopher Silva Classic will take place July 8 at the JC’s B. Robert Burdo Culinary Arts Center. Visit srjcwineclassic.com and you’ll see a VIP reception starts at 1 p.m., followed by the main event at 2 p.m.

Chris would want the party to go on.

------

PEGGY LEISER turned 95 on Saturday and celebrated by going - again! - to Santa Rosa’s Rose Parade. It’s likely that nobody else on the streets had been to nearly as many of the parades as she.

Her name was Peggy King, as in the long-ago King’s Stationery, when she began taking in Santa Rosa’s downtown parade and festival in the late 1920s.

Peggy graduated from Santa Rosa High in 1940 and in the ‘50s and ‘60s cut roses like crazy and used them to decorate the huge floats built by Job’s Daughters.

On Saturday she was cheering at the parade and was walking to the festivities on Old Courthouse Square when an SRPD motorcycle officer noticed her “Birthday Girl” button and presented her a long-stemmed rose.

------

LOSE A NICE BIKE and you can’t help but presume that it will remain lost forever. Lost and stolen bicycles are quickly snapped up, hidden, parted out, repainted, sold off, traded, shipped or Craigslisted.

On Saturday afternoon, Leland Fishman finished the Sonoma County Backroad Challenge, lifted his Specialized Roubaix onto his car rack in central Penngrove, savored the public meal by the Penngrove Social Firemen and drove to his home in west Petaluma.

No! As Fishman parked in his driveway he peeked into the rearview mirror. His bike wasn’t on the rack.

He drove back to Penngrove Park, all along the way looking for his $3,500 bike. Nothing.

On the drive home it dawned on Fishman that the Garmin GPS containing three years of ride history was on the bicycle. He stopped at the Petaluma police station to file a missing-bike report just so that he’d have the paperwork his insurance company would want.

Taking the same route he’d driven from Penngrove about an hour earlier, he was on Kentucky Street, approaching Washington Street, when he saw it. His bicycle, leaning against a picket fence.

“The bike was in the exact shape as when I loaded it on the rack ... water bottles and the GPS still in their holders,” Fishman said. He imagines the bike dropping gently onto the street from the rack he failed to secure and someone spotting it, picking it up and setting it against the fence.

The cyclist visualizes shaking that someone’s hand.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.