Toolin’ Around Town: Healing trauma with a sense of humor

Tom Siebe, former Sonoma County Coroner, has a few words of advice|

(NOTE: This column originally ran in the August 18, 2018 issue. We are reprinting it here due to a last-minute change related to the shelter-at-home orders. The author has updated the piece, with some additional material to close out the column)

With a career spanning more than three decades with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, Tom Siebe could easily write a memoir about a wide range of law enforcement procedures that captivate the public eye; or perhaps be the focus of a documentary following his wide-ranging experiences as, among other positions, a patrol deputy, coroner’s investigator and chief deputy coroner. Siebe’s career included moments of unfathomable tragedy, bizarre occurrences and heart-warming kindness and compassion. Levity became not only his trademark, but a valuable coping mechanism.

“Death occurs every day. I tried to put it in perspective. The sense of humor is the healing part,” explained Siebe.

Nearly 17 years after retiring from his stressful duties with the sheriff’s office, Siebe, 72, still possesses a keen sense of humor. He is happily married to his wife of 50 years, the former Carol Corda, is close to his children David and Meredith and is a doting grandfather of two.

Siebe’s family moved to Santa Rosa in 1959. His father, Norman grew up on a fruit and vegetable farm in Solano County’s Green Valley and his mother, Carol Wilson Siebe, was a Santa Rosa native who graduated from University of California Berkeley and was working in public health when she and Norman married in 1941. They sold their Green Valley property and were living on a Santa Rosa chicken ranch prior to coming to Petaluma, where Carol Siebe took ownership of the Bio-Clinical Laboratory, at 200 Fourth St., and Norman worked for Van Bebber Bros.

A 1965 graduate of Petaluma High School, Siebe was hired by the SCSO in 1969, and worked as a patrol deputy until 1976. He then worked as a coroner’s investigator for a decade before a promotion to chief deputy coroner in 1986, a position he held until 1994, when he chose to go back to patrol duty.

One of the most headline-grabbing crimes Siebe was involved in came on Sept. 5, 1975, when two Southern California brothers robbed the Bank of America in Valley Ford. According to reports, the robbers tried to flee towards Petaluma but found an alerted rancher blocking the road with a bulldozer towing a trailer loaded with hay bales. As they turned around, the robbers saw Siebe on their tail. They headed up a long driveway, but with law enforcement closing in, the caper ended very badly for them.

Working in the coroner’s office is viscerally challenging, a job that requires compassion, kindness and sensitivity during harrowing situations. While the coroner’s chief function is investigating any death not clearly the result of a natural cause, it’s also his responsibility to notify victim’s families. Sympathetic and soft-spoken, Siebe’s was often the first comforting voice they heard.

One of the most horrendous crimes in Sonoma County history occurred in 1989 when an enraged winery worker, Ramon Salcido, murdered seven people, including his wife, mother-in-law and two of his children. Siebe was tasked with working at the murder sites of each murder and telling the surviving family members.

Although he was often exposed to the darker side of life, Siebe found a bright side in the comfort and dignity he provided to the distressed. His legacy as coroner, whose merits far outweigh the difficulties, was his dogged pursuit the county’s first official morgue. He got his wish in 1990, a 6,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility on Chanate Road in Santa Rosa which, in addition to a place to conduct autopsies, included a specialized sterile room designed for tissue transplants made available through the Northern California Transplant Bank.

When the $850,000 building was set for dedication, Siebe lightheartedly proposed a fund-raising “sleepover”- suggesting benefactors could spend the night at the new facility, as had happened when the county jail opened, but the idea was nixed by Dick Michaelsen, then the county sheriff.

Throughout his almost 35-year tenure under eight different sheriffs, Siebe received a roomful of honors, awards and recognition for his compassionate understanding. He was honored as one of the Outstanding Young Men in America by the United States Jaycees, received special honors from the California State Senate and the Redwood Empire Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Affiliate in recognition of his work with SIDS. He once saved a teenage shooting victim’s life by applying pressure to a chest wound until EMTs arrived and has a recommendation from Lassen County for assisting in a rescue while on vacation.

Sonoma County can be proud and thankful for the dedicated and unselfish work performed day in and day out by deputies like Tom Siebe.

As we all search for answers in coping with the coronavirus pandemic, I asked Siebe, who’s faced many challenging situations, if he might offer words of encouragement to our readers. Feeling healthy and sheltered in place, Siebe first described his own disappointment at having to cancel plans for his 50th wedding anniversary on San Francisco Bay before responding.

“In times like this, as a community, it’s important that we all work together and follow the directions of the authorities,” said Siebe. “Since we’re all susceptible, we have to try and stay positive and go on with our lives. We have to, that’s what a strong community does.”

(‘Toolin’ Around Town,’ by Harlan Osborne, runs every other week. You can reach him at harlan@sonic.net)

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