OBITUARY: Dr. Edward Buzz Webb, 1937-2024
LoCO Staff / Tuesday, April 9, 2024 @ 6:56 a.m. / Obits
Dr. Edward Buzz Webb
Vice President for Student Affairs,
Emeritus
Humboldt State University
March 29, 1937 –
February 22, 2024
Buzz died peacefully at home with his wife, Judy, and daughters Lisa and Sydney, by his side, after a long and hard illness — an end to a long, happy and successful life.
He leaves his wife, Judy; daughters Lisa (Erik) and Sydney (Geo) both of Homer, Alaska; his sister-in-law Salli Sachse, half sisters, Judy Webb and Peggy Webb; along with six granddaughters: Anna (Kevin), Miranda (Justin), Isabel (Emily), Larsen (Keaton), Malina, and Natasha. He was preceded in death by his son, David Webb.
Buzz was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on March 9, 1937. His father, a pharmacist, joined the Marines at the beginning of WW2. His mom. Marian, was a New York model who became a “Rosie the Riveter” in a defense plant in Indianapolis.
At the end of the war, Buzz, his mom, his sister Sandra and his dog Tippy took a train and joined their dad in San Diego. His Dad, Max, opened a pharmacy and the family settled in La Jolla.
Leadership seems to have come early in life. In sixth grade he was elected president of La Jolla Elementary School and was especially proud to have risen to Captain of the Patrol Boys that controlled traffic for students.
Not a great student at La Jolla Jr-Sr High School, he was accepted on probation to San Diego State College where he had to take dumbbell math. Having had enough of that, he shaped up and became a stellar student and scholar. He was president of his fraternity, Kappa Sigma, and supported himself by working for room and board at Brown Military Academy, where he coached PE for eighth graders and oversaw the study hall, swimming and JV basketball teams. The military draft was in effect, so many men joined the Air Force ROTC as he did. He rose to the position of Cadet Commander and was offered a regular Reserve Commission in the Air Force.
Buzz met Judy, his wife of 64 years, at La Jolla High School when she was 16. He said he saw her by the lockers and said he was “besotted.” They married after his college graduation in 1959 and set off across the country to his first assignment at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida, spending his uniform allowance on sightseeing. They stopped off in New Orleans for a few days, eating at then famous restaurants, Dinner at Antoine’s and Breakfast a Brennan’s and listening to great jazz,
His first assignment at Homestead Air Force Base in southern Florida where he was in the Air Police and in charge of the flight line. During the Bay of Pigs debacle he worked with the CIA to get the armed and angry Cuban fighters into the country. While there, he was a player and coach for both the basketball and volleyball AF team. Their first daughter, Lisa, was born in the base hospital in 1960. As a First Lieutenant, he was stationed at Driffield Air Force base in Yorkshire, where his second daughter, Sydney, was born in 1962. He was a missile launch officer on a RAF Base where the missiles were aimed at Russia. This was during the Cold War when Russia began moving missiles to Cuba and through diplomacy, the Cuban Missile Crisis was avoided and all of the U.S. missiles were then taken down.
After five years in the Air Force, Buzz made the decision to go to graduate school.
A talented administrator, he began his career at San Diego State University, while pursuing a master’s degree in public administration and political science. Buzz held various positions including Assistant to the Dean of Students and Director of Career Planning and Placement. In 1970, he received a PhD in psychology at California Western University in San Diego. In the San Diego community, he was a member of Rotary and a founding member of The San Diego Human Relations Committee, serving two terms as chairman.
In 1970, on a family vacation, he toured Humboldt State and fell in love with the small university set in the Redwoods.
Four years later in 1974, President McCrone hired him as the Dean of Students at Humboldt State University. Buzz initiated programs to HSU that had been successful at SDSU including many student activities and cultural programs that later morphed into Center Arts and Center Activities.
“He wanted to be part of building Humboldt State University into an outstanding university. Buzz loved the beauty of Humboldt County and wanted to put our surroundings to good use through programs and activities. He saw it as a perfect tie-in to the academic side and residential campus to make us a university where we can offer students a comprehensive experience in and out of the classroom, ” says Burt Nordstrom who worked with Buzz in Student Affairs where he was inspired by Webb’s vision.
Buzz created programs that left a mark on the University and the North Coast community. He was instrumental in the creation of Center Arts, supporting the effort to bring high quality performing arts programming to the region. Under his leadership the University expanded recreational programs with the addition of club sports, new outdoor adventures: backpacking, sailing, rafting, rock climbing along with expanding intramural sports. Buzz was committed to students. He valued them and placed them at the center of his work. In 1986 his title was changed from Dean of Students to Vice President for Student Affairs including added responsibility for campus police known as Public Safety.
Students came first and you could see that by his approach to management, said Rees Hughes former Director of Student Life. He would wander around campus, talking to students and colleagues.
He enjoyed recruiting students and also driving the bus for weekend geography class field trips.
Always an athlete, he loved basketball, volleyball, running, and later, cycling, when bad knees forced him very sadly to give up running. He had his own weight room at home and spent many pleasant hours working out.
Buzz loved music and loved to dance – to his own dance steps, hard to follow but great fun to watch. He was famous for his jokes often told on long backpacking trips in the Sierra. Some called them bad jokes (he took offense at that description), but they were memorable. Many remember a punch line or two.
Buzz was active in many community volunteer endeavors and projects: He spent two terms on the Headwaters Fund, more than 20 years as a Board member and as a volunteer Vasectomy Counselor at Six Rivers Planned Parenthood. He served on the Humboldt Library Foundation Board, and was a teacher with the Literacy Program. He enjoyed his involvement with Humboldt Mediation. Buzz was a longtime elected member of the Board of Patrick Creek Community Services District. A brave man, he served on the Northern Humboldt Union High School Board for two terms.
An avid reader, he was a proud member of the Manly Men Book Club.
Before he died, he wrote this about Joy:
I am 86 years old and under Hospice care because of a terminal lung disease and house bound with 24-hour oxygen dependency. It might seem counterintuitive to submit this as joyous.
Donald Hall, the New Hampshire poet and essayist wrote Out the Window from his family farmhouse. He, too, was house bound, but took pleasure in looking out his window watching the seasons change and the birds arrive and leave. Now I too am looking out my window watching nature. Reading is also a pleasure.
The joy comes from looking back with few regrets at a full life: a satisfying career, back packing in the Sierra, traveling after retirement, watching my children and granddaughters grow and mature. But most of all being married for 64 years to the same person I met in high school.
As we get older one gives up gracefully the activities we can no longer do — and we find new ones that better fit our capabilities. I guess that is where I am — with joy and contentment.
The Family thanks Robert, Kerry, Katy, Joni, Taylor and Harry, of Hospice of Humboldt, who became good friends and made the last 14 months of his life so much easier. Amy and Michael of Visiting Angels were caring and thoughtful caregivers.
Webb’s legacy of cultivating future leaders lives on through the Webb Student Leadership Endowment, established in 2005 by the Webb’s to recognize Humboldt students who make a difference. The fund supports, among other things, the Outstanding Student Awards, an annual event that recognizes the academic excellence and community involvement of students.
Please make donations to: The Webb Student Leadership Endowment, Cal Poly Humboldt, 1 Harpst St., Arcata, Ca 95521, Planned Parenthood of Northern California, 3225 Timber Fall Court Suite B, Eureka, Ca 95503, Hospice of Humboldt, 3327 Timber Fall Court, Eureka, 95503.
###
The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Buzz Webb’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
BOOKED
Today: 8 felonies, 11 misdemeanors, 0 infractions
JUDGED
Humboldt County Superior Court Calendar: Today
CHP REPORTS
Us101 S / Us101 S Piercy Onr (HM office): Traffic Hazard
1080 Mm199 N Dn 10.80 (HM office): Trfc Collision-No Inj
21459-21882 Kneeland Rd (HM office): Trfc Collision-Unkn Inj
Summer Ln / Scenic Creek Dr (HM office): Missing Indigenous
ELSEWHERE
Governor’s Office: First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom leads Gender Equity Summit on technology and well-being
RHBB: Solo Vehicle Crashes Into Guardrail on 101 Between Myers Flat and Weott, According to CHP CAD
County of Humboldt Meetings: In-Home Supportive Services Advisory Board meeting - Nov. 24, 2025
County of Humboldt Meetings: In-Home Supportive Services Advisory Board meeting - Sept. 25, 2025
OBITUARY: Shirley Ann Arruda, 1929-2024
LoCO Staff / Tuesday, April 9, 2024 @ 6:56 a.m. / Obits
Shirley Ann Arruda passed away April 4, 2024 in Eureka, at the age of 95. She was born in Oregon on March 21, 1929.
Shirley was preceded in death by her husband of 57 years, John V. Arruda. Shirley lived a very full and active life. She loved camping, square and round dancing, flower gardening, social gatherings and traveling with her many friends and family. She and her late husband, John, had dairy ranches in Ferndale and Eureka where she was active in all aspects of farm chores and being a homemaker. After retirement from farming they became actively involved with the Humboldt Hoedowners, a square dance club.
Shirley was an active member of the PFSA Council #3, Eureka, attending and participating in various charity drives and events. She is survived by three children, Linda J. Mateus and husband Salomao of McKinleyville, John J. Arruda and wife Teri of Colorado, Arlene M. Finney and husband, Tim; grandchildren Mark A. Mateus and wife Jennifer of San Jose, Terry L. Mateus and wife Stephanie of Kent, Wash. and Jamie B. Johnson of Colorado; great-grandchildren Melissa and Mason Mateus, Keegan and Branden Johnson.
A private family service will be held on April 18, 2024 at 1 p.m. Casket bearers will be Salomao Mateus, Tim Finney, Mark A. Mateus and Terry L. Mateus. Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of Humboldt, Eureka.
###
The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Shirley Arruda’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
What the Hell, With These Gas Prices?
Ryan Burns / Monday, April 8, 2024 @ 4:34 p.m. / News
Ouch! Many stations in Humboldt are selling 87 octane unleaded for around six dollars per gallon. | Photo by Andrew Goff.
###
The average price of a gallon of gas in Humboldt County reached a painful $5.84 today, an increase of nearly a dollar per gallon since the beginning of the year and the highest mark in nearly six months.
It’s also the second-highest average price for any county in California, according to the American Automobile Association. (Only remote Mono County has more expensive prices.) And California, with its higher taxes, isolated market and special blend requirements, typically has the highest prices in the continental U.S.
Leading theories spotted on local social media today include “BIDEN!” and “NEWSOM(E)!” [fist-shaking implied], but the truth is a more complex.
Much to the consternation of local drivers, Humboldt County has long had some of the highest gas prices in the lower 48 for reasons that remain mostly unchanged since I wrote about them almost a dozen years ago. Factors include our geographic isolation, lockstep pricing among competitors and inefficient distribution. (Most gas sold here must be shipped from Bay Area refineries in tankers or barges operated by a small number of hauling companies, or “jobbers.”)
Meanwhile, prices have been rising across the country, and they’re going particularly ballistic here in California due to challenges at refineries, including shutdowns for scheduled maintenance, according to Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). One San Francisco refinery stopped producing gasoline altogether in favor of renewable diesel, Yahoo News reports.
Prices tend to go up this time of year as demand increases in the approaching summer travel season. Other factors are international in scope.
“Renewed Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure and increasing tension in the Middle East spiked oil prices recently,” said AAA spokesman Andrew Gross. “And with the cost of oil accounting for roughly 60% of what we pay at the pump, there will likely be some upward pressure on prices.”
Crude oil prices have risen to the mid-$80s per barrel, and the major oil companies continue to earn tens of billions of dollars per year.
Last year, in an effort to combat soaring gas prices, Newsom signed into law a bill that created the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight, a new branch of the Energy Commission designed to function as a watchdog against price gouging. Last fall the director of that division sent Newsom and legislators a letter noting that gas prices had spiked “in a manner that does not appear to be completely explained even by … supply-and-demand fundamentals.”
Might be time to bust out your bicycles, Humboldt.
How Will Prop. 1 Impact Humboldt County’s Approach to Mental Health and Homelessness? Narrowly Passed Measure Leaves Big Questions Unanswered.
Ryan Burns / Monday, April 8, 2024 @ 2:30 p.m. / Homelessness , Mental Health
A homeless man uses the dolos on the Eureka boardwalk as a windbreak. | Photo by Ryan Burns.
###
PREVIOUSLY:
- Homelessness Is on the California Ballot This March. Will Conditions Change on the Street?
- TODAY in SUPES: County Eyes Major Changes to Mental Health Programs, Awards $1M in Measure Z Revenues to Road Repairs
- Newsom Hits the Road for Mental Health Measure as Poll Shows Declining Enthusiasm for Prop. 1
- Californians Are Voting on Prop. 1, Gavin Newsom’s Mental Health Plan. Here’s What It Does
- Why Prop. 1 Foes Are Getting Back in the Fight
- With Prop. 1, Gavin Newsom Again Changes How Californians With Mental Illness Get Help
###
Last month, California voters just barely passed Proposition 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $6.4 billion plan to overhaul the state’s community mental health and substance abuse program.
The two-pronged measure will use revenue from a nearly $6.38 billion bond to build treatment facilities and supportive housing. It will also change the way counties spend revenues from a 1 percent “millionaires tax” known as the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), approved by voters in 2004.
Supporters of Prop. 1, including U.S. VETS, the National Alliance on Mental Illness of California and the mayors of many cities including San Francisco and Los Angeles, say this much-needed reset will direct more resources to the people who need it most — namely, chronically homeless folks with mental health diagnoses or addiction disorders.
But a coalition of opponents, who derided the election results “an embarrassing squeaker of a victory,” say Prop. 1 will “steal” money from existing mental health services managed by individual counties.
Counties currently receive about 95 percent of the money available from the MHSA, but once Prop. 1 is implemented that amount will drop to 90 percent, meaning an estimated $140 million per year will go to the state instead.
Opponents also say that redirecting MHSA money to build housing will result in up to $1 billion in cuts to existing mental health programs, such as crisis response and wraparound services like education and employment assistance.
Voters here in Humboldt County followed the statewide trend, narrowly approving Prop. 1. In an interview with the Outpost, Oliver Gonzalez, the county’s MHSA program manager, said it’s too soon to tell how Prop. 1 will impact local services because much of its language is generalized and the details have yet to be worked out.
“There are a lot of concerns, of course, from stakeholders, from people in our community [and] all across California about what it could mean for existing programs,” Gonzalez said. Humboldt County, like all others in the state, will see a reduction in funding across the board for MHSA programs, and yet staff must now figure out how to implement new requirements to address substance use disorders and housing.
“We don’t even know how we’re going to implement 99 percent of the things Prop. 1 is proposing,” Gonzalez said. “We don’t have the language for it yet.”
Historically, local MHSA programs have been designed through a collaborative process, with input from a broad range of stakeholders such as the Hope Center, the Humboldt County Transition-Age Youth Collaboration (HCTAYC), family resource centers, the Behavioral Health Board and the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Health.
“MHSA has always been this very flexible source of income that can be molded to our county’s unique needs,” Gonzalez said. “With these new changes, we’ll have to navigate more regulations and more requirements with less funding. And essentially it would make us not be able to leverage as much stakeholder input.”
When Gonzalez last made the rounds with stakeholders, telling them about Prop. 1, many people didn’t even know what it was or what its implications will be, he said, and some asked why Californians were being asked to vote on something so nebulous.
“But also there was a kind of underlying concern … like, what does that really mean for existing programs? And, again, it’s an open question that doesn’t have an answer yet,” Gonzalez said.
In the two decades since voters passed the MHSA, a cornerstone of its implementation has been that the services are voluntary. Prop. 1, by contrast, will allow bond revenues to be spent on involuntary treatment facilities. Meanwhile, last October, Newsom signed Senate Bill 43, which broadens the definition of “gravely disabled,” making a lot more people eligible for involuntary conservatorship.
Back in January, Humboldt County Behavioral Health Director Emi Botzler-Rodgers told the Board of Supervisors that the bill could increase eligibility for such programs from about one percent of the population to about 10 percent. The county has asked for implementation to be delayed until Jan. 1, 2026.
“With these new additions and changes as they’re doing, they’re kind of blurring the lines a little bit as to what will be voluntary and what will be involuntary,” Gonzalez said. “So a lot of advocates have been really voicing that concern.”
That concern extends across the state. In a recent meeting with the MHSA directors of all 58 counties in California, virtually all of them remarked on the questions and concerns being voiced by members of their communities and the fact that they, the MHSA directors, don’t have many answers, Gonzalez said.
Under Prop. 1, the Mental Health Services Act will be renamed the Behavioral Health Services Act. Aside from a few administrative changes that have already been made, most provisions of the measure won’t go into effect until July 1, 2026.
In the coming months, Gonzalez expects the state to issue “cleanup language” clarifying some provisions of the measure. After that, he said, he can start working with local stakeholders to revise their approach to comply with the new realities.
“That way we can at least start preparing to see exactly how we can navigate these changes, how we can preserve programs and protect them as much as we can, because that’s really the ultimate concern.”
How Much Solar Eclipse Action is Humboldt Getting Today?
Andrew Goff / Monday, April 8, 2024 @ 8:35 a.m. / Celebration
UPDATE: Taking in the partial eclipse in Old Town
# # #
Original Post: So you somehow managed to resist to urge to head down to Texas to experience temporary darkness. How extremely unadventurous-but-responsible you are! But don’t worry, the skies here in Humboldt are not going to be completely bereft of eclipse activity.
For example, here in Eureka, where the weather forecast suggests partly cloudy conditions, we’ll still experience roughly 26% obscuration when the eclipse peaks late morning. Yay, us!
Here’s your guide for when to glance up (while donning the special glasses you hopefully have left over from the last Humboldt eclipse, of course).
- 10:21 a.m.: Partial eclipse begins
- 11:16 a.m.: Maximum coverage
- 12:13 p.m.: Partial eclipse ends.
That’s what you get! Enjoy your slightly weird Monday, Humboldt.
They Work 80 Hours a Week for Low Pay. Now, California’s Early-Career Doctors Are Joining Unions
Kristen Hwang / Monday, April 8, 2024 @ 7 a.m. / Sacramento
Medical residents at Kaiser Permanent are moving to form a union, joining a national push by early-career doctors to demand labor representation at hospitals. Here, workers on Oct. 4, 2023 held a demonstration in front of the Kaiser Permanente south Sacramento location. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters.
In some California hospitals, early-career doctors make as little as $16 per hour working 80-hour weeks. It’s training, known as residency, that every board-certified doctor must complete.
The grueling schedules for little pay have been contentious in medicine for decades, and they’re increasingly driving medical residents to form unions. The national accrediting agency for residency programs limits the average work week to 80 hours.
Last week, hundreds of resident physicians and fellows at Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California facilities became the latest to join the wave of medical trainees demanding better pay and working conditions. Their petition filed with the National Labor Relations Board comes after Kaiser Permanente refused to voluntarily recognize the union.
Union membership at medical training programs in California has more than doubled since 2020, according to data from the Committee of Interns and Residents, the union which represents most unionized trainee doctors nationally. Residents at Stanford Health Care, Keck Medicine of USC and all six of the University of California academic medical centers have organized labor unions in recent years.
Northern California Kaiser staff now must hold a formal vote to finalize unionization. If the vote succeeds, residents would join most other Kaiser workers — including pharmacists, nurses and housekeepers — in gaining union representation at the largest health provider and private employer in the state. More than 9 million Californians get health care through Kaiser.
Dr. Brandon Andreson, a second-year internal medicine resident at Kaiser San Francisco Medical Center, said the move to organize was spurred in part by other hospital residents unionizing across the state and country. In an informal vote more than 70% of trainee doctors across Northern California Kaiser facilities supported unionizing, Andreson said.
“There is a huge national movement to recognize residents as decent workers,” Andreson said. “We’ve become pawns in this giant game of making money for a hospital at the expense of your frontline workers.”
“It was so stark the differences of how we’re treated compared to our colleagues who are doing similar work.”
— Dr. Philip Sossenheimer, hospice and palliative medicine fellow at Stanford Medicine
Nationally, union membership among medical residents has expanded from 17,000 to more than 32,000 in a little over three years. There are more than 144,000 doctors in residency programs nationally, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. In California, the number of unionized medical residents has grown by 62% since 2020, said Annie Della Fera, a spokesperson for the Committee of Interns and Residents.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Kaiser Permanente said the organization is committed to providing a good learning and working environment.
“We respect our long-standing relationships with labor unions and the rights of our employees to make decisions about whether they want to be represented by a union,” the statement said.
At stake is increased pay, overtime compensation, housing stipends and more manageable schedules. Unions representing residents have bargained for fertility benefits to support delayed family planning. Dr. Berneen Bal, a third-year psychiatry resident at Kaiser’s Oakland Medical Center, said some colleagues have even traveled out of state where it’s cheaper to freeze eggs.
“As more residencies have unionized, it’s put greater criticism on this training structure that we’ve all just accepted for so long,” Bal said.
Pay for medical residents in California
At Kaiser’s eight Northern California hospitals, residents make around $80,000 per year and typically work between 60 to 80 hours a week, getting one day off per week, Andreson said. The pay range for residents at other non-unionized health systems in California is similar or lower. In contrast, starting salaries for full-fledged physicians are nearly $300,000 depending on specialty.
Unions represent few certified doctors in California because many employment structures make them business partners and prohibit them from joining a labor organization. Many doctors participate in the politically powerful California Medical Association, which represents their interests in the Capitol.
Doctors-in-training have long bemoaned grueling work weeks and little pay, but the pandemic fueled unionization, said Ken Jacobs, co-chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center.
“In health care specifically, COVID and the aftermath of COVID have pushed a lot of people into seeing the need for a union and going out and doing the work necessary to win a union election,” Jacobs said.
“It’s a big deal to take on something the size of Kaiser. What happens here will have an impact and is likely to ripple out.”
— Ken Jacobs, co-chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center
Hospitals relied on residents for surge staff during COVID-19 peaks but didn’t pay them overtime or offer other worker protections, several doctors interviewed for this story said.
Stanford Health Care initially excluded residents from eligibility for the first round of COVID-19 vaccines in 2020, a breaking point for trainee doctors there who unionized in 2022.
“It showed us that they view us as an expendable workforce,” said Dr. Philip Sossenheimer, a hospice and palliative medicine fellow at Stanford Medicine. “It was so stark the differences of how we’re treated compared to our colleagues who are doing similar work.”
Sossenheimer said doctors-in-training are especially vulnerable to exploitative employer practices because it is nearly impossible to leave a residency and find another position. They are contractually obligated to complete their residency training if they want to practice medicine. Residencies last between three and seven years with additional time for specialty training known as fellowships.
Last year, residents at Stanford Health Care won additional benefits and a 21% across-the-board pay increase in their first contract.
Kaiser union could set precedent
Hospitals began adhering to an 80-hour workweek for medical residents 20 years ago. A 2009 Rand Corp. study found that reducing residents’ workloads to meet that standard and to prevent fatigue would cost major teaching hospitals more that $4 million a year, expenses driven by hiring substitute providers and additional residents.
Hospital executives across the country have been outspoken about increasing labor costs leading to higher prices for consumers, something which puts pressure on California’s attempts to tamp down medical costs. Research shows that wages contribute to higher health care costs in the U.S. compared to other countries, but spending on administration and prescription drugs are bigger drivers.
Despite the growing appetite for collective action among resident physicians, not every institution has accepted unionization efforts. Residents and fellows at Loma Linda University Health are locked in a legal battle over bargaining. The 80-member unit won union representation last June under the Union of American Physicians and Dentists, but the hospital is refusing to bargain citing religious exemptions, according to case documents filed with the National Labor Relations Board
Loma Linda University Health is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Dr. Jessica Muñoz, an emergency medicine resident who led unionization efforts at Loma Linda, said seeing other residents win contracts and move to organize offers hope to her and her colleagues.
“No matter what happens here, I’m excited for all of these residents and fellows that are unionizing around California and the country,” Muñoz said.
Jacobs with the Berkeley Labor Center said establishing a union among Kaiser residents could have far-reaching impacts given the size of the health care behemoth, which is often looked at as a leader for worker pay and benefits.
“It’s a big deal to take on something the size of Kaiser,” Jacobs said. “What happens here will have an impact and is likely to ripple out.”
###
Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.
CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
OBITUARY: Victoria Lee Onstine, 1951-2024
LoCO Staff / Monday, April 8, 2024 @ 6:56 a.m. / Obits
Victoria
Lee Onstine passed away April 3, 2024, at the age of 73. She was born
January 31, 1951 to Bonnie Jean Fricker and Leon Jay Duste in San
Francisco. Victoria spent her early years in East Palo Alto before
relocating to Eureka, where she graduated from Eureka High School in
1969.
She received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Humboldt State University in 1973 and began a 46-year career in Humboldt County as a registered nurse and public health nurse, primarily in the home health sector. Victoria was an active member of the community and a dedicated social servant. During her life, she served on the board of directors for General Hospital, the Area 1 Agency on Aging, and Redwood Concert Ballet. She organized and taught caregiver courses in Humboldt and Del Norte counties and was instrumental in developing the Area 1 Agency on Aging’s caregiver registry. Victoria was a member of the Rotary Club of Old Town Eureka, where she held the role of secretary for over 15 years, in addition to being a business owner for several years in downtown Eureka, along with her partner, Jayne. She participated in the Nutcracker in the role of grandmother for many years and held the position of costume mistress with the Redwood Concert Ballet, spending her evenings mending and altering tutus for the ballet dancers.
In Victoria’s private life, she was an avid gardener, showcasing her own garden in the Eureka Garden Tour in 2014. She was also known as a cook, crafter, and lover of science fiction and fantasy; however, she will be most remembered by her unconditional love and care for others. Victoria was steadfast in her devotion to family and friends, placing the needs of others before self, and a role-model of compassion and acceptance. Her quiet patience, positivity and eccentricities will be missed. At her request, Victoria was laid to rest at the Ferndale Cemetery following the guidelines of the Bahá’í Faith.
Victoria was preceded in death by her parents; brother, Billy Charles; sister-in-law, Jennifer Duste; and nephew, Patrick Fabian. She is survived by her partner, Jayne McNeilly; daughter, Molly Onstine; son, Justin Onstine and wife, Erin; brothers, David Duste and Christopher Charles; sisters Marta Charles, Nicki Charles, Zina Keeran, and Margaret Duste; grandson, Harrison Onstine; and nieces and nephews David, Casey, Trish, Matt, Jackie, and Madison.
###
The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Victoria Onstine’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
