Councilman's life celebrated
Updated: 09/10/2011 11:59:31 PM PDT
Around 1,000 people from Fort Bragg and beyond gathered Saturday to say goodbye to City Councilman Jere Melo at the Timberwolf Stadium, one of his greatest legacies to the city.
Fort Bragg Mayor Dave Turner said it was the largest crowd the stadium had ever hosted, and asked those who came to honor Melo at a "celebration of life" service to give a cheer worthy of the occasion.
"I want this cheer so loud that they'll hear us out on the ocean fishing," Turner said. "Let's let Jere hear us."
The crowd gave a deafening cheer.
Dignitaries from the firefighting, forestry and government sectors remembered Melo as a hard worker and a charismatic leader.
"Whenever there was a chore to be done or anything to happen, Jere always tried to get the toughest and the dirtiest job and laugh about it," said Joe Sutphin of the Mendocino Coast Sports Foundation, who worked with Melo to build the stadium.
The fence behind the podium where he spoke wasn't yet finished, he noted, giving a brief history of his 15 years working on the stadium with Melo, starting with when they needed 800 dump truck loads of dirt and worked every weekend on it with "just about every dump truck in town" showing up to help.
"One day I went into Jere's office and said, You know, Jere, why don't we get the National Guard involved?'
He looked at me and didn't answer, turned around, picked up his phone book, called ... (and) set up an appointment, went down and visited them. Next time we hauled dirt, it was three trucks and the National Guard up there hauling the dirt with us."
The audience laughed.
"That's just how Jere got things done," Sutphin said.
Congressman Mike Thompson brought a folded, framed American flag that flew over Capitol Hill Sept. 2 in Melo's honor. He called Melo a "non-partisan," by his wife Madeiline's account, "and then she added, but he always leaned a bit conservative.'
"Well, if there were more people in government who, regardless of which way they leaned, were focused on moving forward and working for a better future -- let's call that the Jere Melo model -- we'd all be better off," Thompson said. "He didn't care what party stripe you wore, just so long as you wore it when you were working to improve the community."
Gary Roach of the Redwood Region Logging Conference, of which Melo was long a part, said the job of a forester and the conference was one of Melo's greatest passions.
"For 45 years, he'd get up every day, lace up his high, logger boots, put on his plaid foresters' jacket, don his tin hardhat and do what he loved best: go into the woods, practice forestry and manage the forest," Roach said.
Family friend Chuck Whitlock remembered he and his wife going on weekend outings with Melo and his wife, and Melo "taking hours to come home on all the old, back logging roads, and showing us where every eagle's nest was.
"He loved the forest; he loved the idea that it could be managed in a responsible way that his grandchildrens' grandchildren would still be able to enjoy it, and yet it could still be used commercially."
Whitlock said he guessed Melo had walked every acre of forest in Southern Humboldt County and all of Mendocino County.
The League of California Cities sent representatives to speak about how Melo influenced city politics statewide. Melo was president of the league's Redwood Empire Division in 2000 and sat on the league's board of directors from 2003 to 2008. He established and chaired the league's Coastal Cities Issues Group in 2007.
LCC speaker Yvonne Hunter called the later one of his most lasting contributions to the League.
"California cities -- and actually California as a whole -- are better for Jere's contributions," Hunter said.
"Jere had a talent for bringing people together to discuss complex and divisive issues to reach consensus. He modeled and encouraged respect and civility during the discussions."
She remembered his "hands-on" leadership style and his willingness to drive about four hours from Fort Bragg to Sacramento to help staff "and not just be a voice on the phone."
His typical greeting "was a hearty, Hey boss!" followed by a very big hug," Hunter said, going on to call him "the epitome of all that is good in public service."
Turner remembered Melo, who served 15 years on the Fort Bragg City Council, beating him the first time Turner ran for office, and said he was grateful he didn't have to run against Melo again after Turner won his seat two years later.
"Whatever was best for Fort Bragg was the order of the day," Turner said.
Turner said he'd heard over the last two weeks "the same thing from people over and over ... Jere has made me reconsider my life; I'm going to do more things for the things I believe in.'
"So maybe if we all pledge to spend one hour a month for 20 years, we can pick up half of the work Jere was doing. Or maybe we can do two hours and get it done. OK, boss?" Turner said to the sky.
Erin Timinski, Madeleine Melo's niece, read Madeleine's words on her behalf.
"Oh my gosh, my heart is broken. Your heart is broken," Timinski read. After wondering for the last two weeks how to heal the hole his loss left in her life, Madeleine wrote, she proposed an answer: "Each of you who has been so touched by Jere, you should take note of what it was about Jere that you liked so about him. Try to be the character in him that you admire, and do what Jere did."
Melo and his wife also served on the Fort Bragg-Otsuchi Cultural Exchange Association Board, a link established between Fort Bragg and its "sister city," the city that shares the same latitude, Otsuchi, Japan.
Ken Sasaki of the association came from Japan to honor Melo's contributions and life.
Recalling to memory the 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami that devastated Otsuchi earlier this year, Sasaki said he lost a cousin and many other family members in the disaster.
"I just want to shout, that's enough' as I face this sudden death again," Sasaki said. "I am still hearing his big laugh."
Turner closed by inviting attendees to stay and share fond memories and funny stories, saying, "That's what Jere would want us to do."
Attendees were each given a redwood seedling and encouraged to plant a tree in Melo's honor after the service.
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