Los Gatos Weekly-Times

"A Tribute to Bob" by Bruni Sablan, Old Town Gallery. This 24x36" oil portrait was painted for Mr. Aldrich in February, 1997.

Lasting Words

The Life and Work of Robert S. Aldrich

A rich half-century long career ended this week

By Dan Pulcrano

Beloved Los Gatos chronicler Robert Aldrich died Saturday night at the age of 76. His career as wartime journalist, freelance fiction writer and columnist spanned more than half a century. He never retired, and turned in a column last Wednesday. It appears in this issue.

Aldrich was taken to Good Samaritan hospital Saturday with circulatory problems stemming from a ruptured aneurism on his heart. He underwent surgery that evening to replace a torn aorta and died several hours after surgery, at around 10:30, in the company of close friends.

Shy and never given to boasts, Aldrich was known for his droll, self-effacing sense of humor. He had come to Los Gatos in 1955 to visit a friend and wound up staying. He fell in with a loosely knit band of poets, writers and local history buffs, with whom he developed lifelong friendships.

Robert Streeter Aldrich was born June 24, 1920, in Elmwood, Nebraska, a village 20 miles east of Lincoln. He was the youngest of four children born to Charles, a banker-lawyer, and Bess Streeter Aldrich, a prominent Midwestern novelist and short-story writer. Charles Aldrich died when Bob was four years old.

Following what Aldrich sometimes jokingly referred to as a "Huckleberry Finnish" boyhood, he attended the University of Nebraska, and upon graduation took a job with the United Press in Washington, D.C. He left to serve in the Army and returned to UP (later UPI), then became a reporter with the Omaha World-Herald.

While there, he started freelancing, selling what he called "ever-so-wild Westerns and some detective yarns." In 1950, he quit his day job to concentrate on fiction, penning some 200 stories for the pulps and about 90 humor pieces for the Saturday Review magazine.

It was during that time that he took up residence in Los Gatos, a lazy hillside town whose friendly ways captured his fancy. He had come here to pursue a romantic interest but never married.

In April 1982, local freelancer Vern Hansen recommended him to the editor of the Los Gatos Weekly, which had begun publishing a few weeks earlier. Aldrich accepted an invitation to contribute a short piece, which led to a weekly column that Aldrich wrote faithfully for 15 years.

Aldrich also contributed a variety of features, cover stories and opinion pieces that captured the soul of Los Gatos in clear prose salted with understated wit. He became a familiar figure, making his way around town by bicycle or on foot. He sometimes complained about the driving habits of the town's less observant motorists in essays such as "My life as a pedestrian."

Aldrich was twice named the town's Poet Laureate (1993-94 and 1996-97) and served on the board of the Los Gatos Museum Association. He championed numerous local causes and planned to donate proceeds from an upcoming book of collected writings to A Place for Teens.

Aldrich is survived by his brother, Charles S. Aldrich of Exeter, N.H., sister Mary Aldrich Beechner of Lincoln, Neb., a nephew, three nieces, and two dozen great- and great-great nieces and nephews, according to niece Dorothy Mapes.

Private services will be held in his hometown and a public memorial service will be held Friday at 10 a.m. on the front lawn of Los Gatos High School, followed by a reception at the Forbes Mill Museum.

Donations in his memory may be made to a fund set up to assist A Place for Teens. Checks should be payable to the Metro Community Fund and sent to the Weekly Times, 245 Almendra Ave., Los Gatos, CA, 95030, attn: Aldrich fund.

Metro Newspapers president Dan Pulcrano edited the Los Gatos Weekly from 1982 to 1985.

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