Rudolph William Santsche
January 17, 1930 – May 28, 2023

Rudolph William Santsche, 93, passed away peacefully at St. Joseph’s Hospital on Sunday, May 28, 2023. Rudolph went by many nicknames, including Rudy, Bill, Santsch, Papa, and Unc. He was born in the family home in Bucksport on January 17, 1930. He was the third of seven children born to Rudolph G. Santsche and May Matilda Ford Santsche.

After receiving his high school diploma in 1948, Bill began working for the Pacific Bell Telephone company. After working for two years, he joined the Army’s communications division and served twenty months in Korea during the Korean War where he earned two bronze service stars. After his stint in Korea, Bill received an honorable discharge and returned to his job with the telephone company, where he was employed for 42 years, retiring in 1990. Prior to his retirement, Bill received the Driver of the Year Award from the California Telephone Association for remaining accident-free during his employment with the company.

On July 3, 1953, Bill married Arte Lee Roberts and together they had two daughters, Shelley Ann (Moore) and Loreen Lee (Farrell). Later, when Bill remarried Judith Ann Bertelsen in 1980, he gained a bonus daughter Tina (Conti) and two bonus sons, Kipp and Robert (Bertelsen). Raising five children, combined with growing up in a large family, family traditions were very important to Bill. He made sure the family carried on traditions such as Sunday family dinners, making home-made noodles at Thanksgiving, “hunting” for Christmas trees, camping and sport fishing with friends and family for clams, surf fish, perch, salmon and his favorite, abalone ‘rock-picking’ because he never learned to swim.

Bill was a wonderful brother, father, grandfather great-grandfather and friend. He doted on his family and was happiest when he was surrounded by family and friends. Over the years he attended countless baseball, basketball, football, track, 4-H, FFA, ballet, orchestra, band, and cheerleading events to show support for both his children and grandchildren.

After he retired, Bill enjoyed traveling with friends and family to many wonderful destinations, including Disneyland, Disneyworld, Hawaii, Branson, Nashville, Cabo San Lucas, the Grand Canyon, Reno and Arizona. He enjoyed making new friends and becoming a member of the Swiss Club, Moose Lodge and attending numerous Golden State Accordionaires functions and performances.

Bill was well-known for having a large vegetable and flower garden. Gardening was always a family activity, whether it was separating garlic cloves, placing bean seeds perfectly within well-tilled rows, harvesting zucchini, or shucking snap peas, it was done with pride and love. Bill continued to tend to his garden up into his 90s.

Special thanks go out to his wonderful, supportive neighbors, family and friends who went above and beyond to provide him the opportunity to live independently until the age of 93. We also want to thank the staff at Frye’s Residential Care Home, St. Joseph’s Hospital and the Veteran’s Clinic for their kindness and compassion during the past several months.

Bill is proceeded in death by his parents Rudolph and May Santsche, brother Ed Santsche, and sisters Margaret, Marjory, Evelyn and spouses Arte Hardisty and Judith Santsche. He is survived by his sisters Eva Rainbolt, Mae Tibbet (Ray), children Shelley Moore (David), Loreen Farrell (Robert), step-children Kipp Bertelsen (Katrina), Tina Conti, Robert Bertelsen (Jennifer), and grandchildren Katie Wells (Matt), Amanda Maciel (Michael), Dr. Kelsea Breese (Jon), Kira Cosio (Bryce), Megan Dutra (Jonny), Michael, Matthew, and Missie Mae Bertelsen, Travis and Kylie Conti, Devin Bertelsen and great-grandchildren Franchesca Lopez, Sephora and DaisyLynn Maciel, Braden and Mason Dutra, and Carson Cosio, as well as numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and ‘adopted’ family members.

Funeral arrangements will be held at the Ocean View Cemetery Chapel on Monday, June 19, 2023 at 11 a.m. located at 3975 Broadway Street in Eureka, California. Please join us for a Celebration of Life to be held immediately following at the Wharfinger Building located at 1 Marina Way, in Eureka. In lieu of flowers, please feel free to make a donation in our father’s name to your local Future Farmers of America (FFA) Chapter.

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Kevin Patrick Coyne of Eureka passed away on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. Though taken from us too soon, Kevin lived a robust life for 73 years.

Kevin was born on February, 27,1950 in Bethesda, Maryland to Raymond and Margaret Coyne. With three older sisters and dozens of cousins, there was rarely a dull moment when the family gathered. Kevin’s father, Raymond, was in the US Marine Corps and by the time Kevin was six, they moved to Ray’s new station in San Diego. After a brief stint in San Diego, the Coyne family moved to the Bay Area where Ray retired from the Marines and taught law at the University of San Francisco. Burlingame was where the Coynes put down roots and where Kevin would grow up and always consider his home, and where their younger sister, Kelly, was born.

Kevin graduated from Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, where he excelled in athletics, mainly baseball. He went on to graduate from the University of California at Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. While at Cal, Kevin dove deep into music, playing in regional bands. He could often be found playing his saxophone around the Bay Area as a vagabond type of busker, and of course, cheering on his beloved Giants.

Kevin met and married Sally Coyne in 1978. They welcomed their son, Brendan, in 1982 and their daughter, Natalie, in 1984. The Coyne crew eventually moved to the Midwest and settled in Columbia, Missouri. Once their children had gone to college, Kevin and Sally moved to Humboldt County to enjoy an active life where the redwoods meet the Pacific. Kevin was a woodworker by hobby and even made wooden sea kayaks that he and Sally used in Humboldt, Baja, and Vancouver Island. A lover of the outdoors, Kevin found such peace in the beauty of the North Coast.

In January of 2020, Kevin became the beamingly proud grandfather to Natalie’s son, Quinn Elliott. The profound joy he had for Quinn was so tender, so pure. Quinn will miss his “Anpa.”

Kevin is preceded in death by his father, Raymond, mother, Margaret, and sister, Kelly. He is survived by Sally, his son, Brendan, his daughter, Natalie, his grandson, Quinn, his sister, Meg, his sister, Betsy, and his sister, Kathy. Kevin is also survived by many nieces and nephews, who miss him dearly, and many friends. A Humboldt service will be planned for early August.

We’ll all miss you, Daddy. As we always said when I was a little girl, I know you loved me more than fishing, and I’ll always love you more than strawberries.

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Ed Whitten peacefully passed at the age of 86 with his family at his side on May 28, 2023. Ed was one of six children and grew up Sonoma, Calif. He served two years in the United States Army before going to work for the California Department of Forestry for over 30 years. His favorite part of his job was flying in the helicopter. He had been retired for 26 years, spending time with family, hunting, gardening and helping anyone in need.

Ed met the love of his life, Jackie Andersen, and married on June 15, 1970, settling in Fortuna for 53 years. He had four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Ed will be greatly missed. He leaves a legacy that will continue to live in the hearts of many. His leadership style, kindness and good humor gained the admiration and respect of many of the men he led.

He and his wife attended the Presbyterian Church in Fortuna for the last several years, where he looked forward to eating his wife’s good cooking and the cooking of other members of the church at their weekly Sunday potlucks. Ed and Jackie were very faithful and devoted many hours at keeping the grounds of the church very neat and beautiful.

Ed is preceded in death by his parents Bert and Frankie, his daughter and son-in-law, Judy and Ken Noel, brothers, Bob, Henry and Charles Whitten. He is survived by his wife Jackie Whitten, wife of 53 years, brother James Whitten, sister, Carole Jackson, daughter, Sheri (Don) Jewett, son, Randy (Kendra) Andersen, grandchildren, Krista Viggers (Ryan McKenzie), Chad Viggers, Melissa Demello, Steffanee Andersen (Brett), great-grandchildren, Asa, Layla and Shawnessy Mckenzie.

To a live well lived. We love you so much, Ed. Celebration of Life: Saturday, June 24, 2023 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., Fortuna Fire Hall, 320 South Fortuna Blvd.

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News time! Armed robbery at Three Corners Market, tightening public agency budgets, free lunches for kids, courses for elderly caregivers, gun violence awareness, bike share survey, and more miserable weather ahead!

Plus, this poll:

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the community’s help to identify two suspects of an armed robbery last weekend.

On June 3, 2023, at about 8:05 p.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a business on the 5900 block of Myrtle Avenue near Eureka for the report of an armed robbery.

According to an employee of the business, two unknown, masked suspects entered the business, brandished a firearm at the employee and demanded money from the register. The suspects fled the business with cash and alcohol. The employee was not physically injured during this incident.

The suspects are described as follows:

• Suspect One: Approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall, 160 pounds, wearing a white and gray hooded Puma jacket, black pants, shoes and facial covering, and in possession of a black backpack.
• Suspect Two: Approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall, very thin build, wearing a blue hooded Nike jacket, gray jeans, black shoes and facial covering, and in possession of a black backpack.

 The suspects may be associated with a gray four-door sedan.

This case is still under investigation. Anyone with information regarding the suspects’ identities, whereabouts or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539, reference case number 202302554.

In the video above, produced by Eureka City Schools, please meet Eureka whiz kid Bien Hou, who has parlayed her passion for computer programming, data science and machine learning into big scholarship $$$ from Amazon and Dell.

Congratulations, Bien! I, personally, dislike that she is using npm in the above clip — and on Windows, no less! — but no doubt that is because I am an extremely old man.

Just in time for summer break: The wonderful folks at Backcountry Press have released a new book — Hiking Humboldt Kids — that’ll give you some great options?

Here are authors Jennifer Gonzales and Humboldt hiking legend Rees Hughes to tell us all about their new book, which is in English and Spanish side-by-side. Not only do you get hiking suggestions, you get a ton of kids activities tailored to each specific hike. Good stuff!

Check it out! Video above, rough transcript below.

O’CONNOR:

Well, welcome to another Humboldt Conversation. I’m really thrilled to say we’re here today with Rees Hughes and Jennifer Gonzales, who have just brought out this fantastic new book, Hiking Humboldt Kids. Now, you may have already spotted it on our bookshelves on Humboldt today. We’ve been having it behind me as we’ve been doing the news for the last few weeks. So tell us about this book, Rees, what’s it all about?

HUGHES:

Well, I think it’s a recognition of the importance of getting outdoors and getting families with young children outdoors. Yeah. Both of us have gone through the process of being parents of young kids and what a great opportunity to get out and explore this wonderful place we live in.

O’CONNOR:

Yeah, there’s a lot going on around here and Jennifer, there’s a Spanish version as well I believe.

GONZALES:

The book is fully bilingual. Oh, bilingual. I apologize. There’s English and Spanish side by side.

O’CONNOR:

So what’s the highlights of the book? If people are looking for this for kids, what can they expect to get out and explore?

HUGHES:

There are 25 hikes that we’ve highlighted and in here are not only the hikes with very simple maps and Directions and things that they they might expect to see that we have what we call well There are two things one is either exercises they can do with their kids or what we call Here I’ll give you an example. I don’t know if it’ll show up here, but we have a series of things, like this, we call them scavenger hunts. They’re not really a traditional scavenger hunt. But it’s the notion of things that you might see when you’re out on this walk, so it may be historical it may be an animal or a plant, it may be a bit of information that you might expect to see. What would you add to that?

GONZALES:

And activities to do with young kiddos. Yeah. Drawing, journaling for kiddos that write. Even kids that aren’t writing words can journal with their own drawings. And yeah, just different activities to engage families and get them out there sharing experiences.

O’CONNOR:

Well it’s perfect timing because the nicer weather has finally arrived. Who thought it was ever going to come this year? We finally got it so as to get out there. Now this is actually a partnership though isn’t it with a couple of different organizations? 

HUGHES:

It is — the principal one being First 5 Humboldt. And I think you can talk a little bit more about that. The other part of it is Backcountry Press. And they were a key partner in this as well. You can talk about First Five.

GONZALES:

Yeah, so the project was born in the height of COVID. And First 5 Humboldt was trying to think of ways to get families outdoors and enjoying nature and finding ways to reduce stress from, you know, COVID was hard. It’s been hard. And so yeah, so I reached out to Rees and we started chatting and then we roped in Michael with Backcountry Press and his wife, Alison, and yeah, we worked together for about a year and a half?

HUGHES:

Longer than we ever would have thought. But it’s a complicated project with the intent of being as inclusive as possible. And I think that is a special challenge. And I think that’s also especially important.

O’CONNOR:

Now, it is for children of all ages, isn’t it? But it’s also very much for adults as well, because anybody can follow the trails.

GONZALES:

Absolutely, absolutely. We did design it specifically thinking of folks with kiddos, you know, five and under. That’s our, that’s our…

HUGHES:

Target group.

GONZALES:

Target group. That’s our target, with First  Five Humboldt.

HUGHES:

I have to say that I’ve had some older friends who’ve said, you know, this actually is about my length of hike. Perfect for me. So I think … and obviously it’s complex. We didn’t try to talk down to the reader. So in that respect, I think it’s really intended to be for the parents. And they will then be guides for their kids. 

O’CONNOR:

And future generations, their grandkids. And we are checking in now.

HUGHES:

Grandkids, right, or themselves.

O’CONNOR:

It’s a lovely book, it’s available now, tell us how much it is.

HUGHES:

You know what? $24.95. $24.95. And in part the reason I had to look because not only is it for sale but through your program…

GONZALES:

Yeah, First 5 Humboldt has purchased copies to distribute free for Humboldt County families with children ages 5 years and under. For the entire month of June, myself and my colleagues at First 5 Humboldt will be traveling around the county through playgroups and library branches to distribute them free for families to get them outdoors.

O’CONNOR:

Fantastic. Well, it’s a lovely book. I’m really glad I had the chance to meet you both today. Thank you. It’s been a real pleasure, Rees. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. Thank you for joining us for a Handbook Conversation and join us for another one very soon.