Alan Michael Bertaina

Alan Michael Bertaina, 78, died peacefully at his home in Sebastopol of prostate cancer on January 10, 2022, with his wife and daughter by his side. Al was a war baby, born July 7, 1943 to Julian and Margaret (Springer) Bertaina in San Francisco, the second of three children. He was raised in Millbrae and spent summers in Sebastopol surrounded by his mother’s three sisters and a dozen cousins. Al soaked up learning from his father on everything from plumbing and wiring to auto and furniture repair and turned around to teach his daughter all those same skills. He graduated from Capucchino High School in 1961 and headed for San Jose State where he did a lot of body surfing but not much studying. Instead of quitting college to take a job with his Dad at Hostess Bakery (where he had worked in the summers), Al joined the Peace Corps. He trained at Syracuse NY and landed in Bukoba, Tanzania, on the western shore of Lake Victoria in September 1964. There, he surveyed roads and installed culverts and bridges so that local farmers could bring their produce to market. He camped in tents visited by lions, worked at a Watusi refugee camp and sailed across Lake Victoria to Uganda.

There Al met another Peace Corps volunteer, Beverly Jean Dare from Littleton CO. Al and Bev married 11 months later on November 27, 1965, with a very international gathering at the wedding. They honeymooned at Queen Elizabeth Park and the Mountains of the Moon in Uganda. When they returned home at the end of their 2 1/2 year stint, their beautiful daughter Lara Elizabeth was born in Denver on St. Patrick’s Day, 1967 and they moved to California 6 weeks later. Al returned to San Jose State where he worked at the then-small airport and earned his BS in Industrial Engineering with honors.

In 1969, Al got a job with Del Monte Corp. so the family moved to San Francisco where they moved into a third floor, 3 bedroom flat on Dolores St. ($170/mo rent!). Their handsome son, Adam Michael, who was born on October 29, 1972, suffered brain damage from an unknown cause and developed severe physical and intellectual disabilities and a seizure disorder. Al’s character as a “stand up guy” truly revealed itself then. Contrary to the “advice” of the doctors that they put Adam in an institution (where they were told he would not have lived past age 3) and have another baby to replace him, they took him home to grow up within their family. Unlike many fathers of disabled kids, Al stayed with his family; at school meetings, he was often the only male in a room full of mothers of kids with disabilities. Al changed diapers, fed, bathed and dressed Adam, carried him around in a backpack; he became Adam’s advocate and pushed to get him into an infant development program. Al used his skills to build stimulation boxes, special supportive seats, raised beds with drop sides, elevated the bathtub and anything else needed to keep Adam at home.

All during his working life, Al went to work everyday, almost never taking time off for illness, walking 5 miles every morning to get to work or riding his motorcycle in all weathers. He stood up for undocumented workers when the bosses at an airline food preparation plant locked the fire doors to keep the workers from fleeing during INS raids; knowing that he was risking his job, he threatened to call the Fire Marshall if they didn’t unlock the doors and keep them unlocked (which they did). As an “efficiency expert”, he was well-liked and respected by the workers he studied because he listened to them and incorporated their ideas into his recommendations.

In 1973, they bought an old row house in Bernal Heights and Al spent most evenings remodeling and improving it, until it became a real showcase. Forty years after they sold it, the beautiful work Al did in the kitchen and bathroom remains admired and unchanged.

In 1975, when Bev’s sister died leaving two young grieving daughters, Al stepped up again. He didn’t hesitate to bring Teri (age 12) and Kathi (age 5) to live with the family and to make the adjustments necessary to help them feel at home. He treated and loved them as he did his own daughter. He stood up again in 1977 when he provided the support Bev and Adam needed to participate in the longest sit-in in history at the federal building in San Francisco with hundreds of other people with disabilities in protest for their civil rights. Al kept them supplied with diapers, medications, clothing, took care of the 3 girls at home and brought the girls to protest in support of the sit-in every weekend.

In 1980, the family moved to the country outside Sebastopol where they built an exceptionally beautiful geodesic dome with a ground floor that was wheelchair accessible for Adam. Al, Bev and Lara did most of the design work and much of the construction and finish work. Again, much of his work remains as beautiful as ever. Al worked at OCLI for 5 years and then was laid off with many others. He went into the job search office OCLI set up for eight hours every day, working hard to find another job. He subsequently improved plant layouts, logistics, materials flow, worker efficiency and administration at Weigh Tronix, British Oxygen Corp., Advanced Fiber Communications and Personal Stamp Exchange and retired in 2001.

Al donated gallons of blood and his neighbors always knew he was there to help. He served on a number of boards of disability agencies including the North Bay Regional Center for Developmental Disabilities where he pushed to require care homes to have no more than 6 beds as anything larger was an institution, not a home; while serving on its civil rights committee, he pushed to get the Sonoma State Developmental Center closed and replaced by small group homes in the community. It finally closed shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic arrived which doubtless saved many lives.

When Adam became too big for Bev to lift, they moved him into one of the new 6 bed care homes where he made good friends, received excellent care and was very happy. Adam died in his sleep at age 19 in 1992.

Al stood up when their good friend Pegge was dying, taking time off work to take her to dialysis and help with her care; giving his mother Margaret loving, gentle care along with his brother and sister while she lived her last 6 months in his home; and spending months at a time with Bev’s mother at her home in Denver, caring for her during her last months.

Al and Bev returned to Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda a number of times with their daughter Lara (he showed her the room where she had been “started”) and with his sister Janet. They have continued to support Hekima Girl’s School, where Bev taught during the Peace Corps, ever since. They went to St. Lucia with Al’s cousin often; found Bev’s ancestors in England; took Al’s mother Margaret to visit her husband’s cousins in Italy and to find her own long-lost cousins in Slovenia; attended his niece’s wedding in Italy and arranged a family trip to Slovenia; took 5000 mile driving trips across the US to visit Bev’s aging aunts, uncle and cousins; drove the 2400 mile round trip to Denver to visit Bev’s family and friends over 100 times in 50 years.

Al and Bev moved into an old house in Sebastopol in 2000 and again, he spent years remodeling, upgrading and making the house wheelchair accessible which came in handy in his own final days. He and Bev celebrated their 50th anniversary with a big party in 2015. In February 2020, they happened to be on the Grand Princess Cruise Ship that got caught at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic without a place to land for 5 days until they were finally allowed off the ship, only to be quarantined at Travis Air Force Base for 2 more weeks under armed guard.

Al rode his beloved BMW motorcycles with Bev, his brother-in-law, his cousins, the BMW club and the Old Coots on Scoots as well as on his own for over 40 years, happily traveling hundreds of thousands of miles across the county and the country. He especially loved to ride along the twisty back roads of Sonoma County where some of his ashes will be scattered (and some in Tanzania, under the hibiscus bush he and Bev planted in their 1st year of marriage).

Bev and Lara would like to thank Al’s family, her brother, many friends and Memorial Hospice for their help, meals, love and care during his last months. Al is survived and terribly missed by his wife Beverly, daughter Lara Bertaina of Los Osos, sister Janet Bertaina of Cupertino, brother John Bertaina of San Jose, his brother-in-law Fred Dare of Arvada CO, his nieces Teri McHale and Kathi Regan and many other dear cousins, nieces and nephews. Donations may be made in Alan’s honor to Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (dredf.org) in Berkeley and Hekima Girls Secondary School, Bukoba, Tanzania, through the auspices of the non-profit Share in Africa (shareinafrica.org). A celebration of his life will be held at 1 pm on Saturday, July 16, 2022 at the Gazebo in Ragle Park, Sebastopol.