Photograph courtesy of Judy Welch

Russ Cooney and his protegé, Bill Avery, at Cooney's retirement dinner on August 26, 1976.

Upon the death of a former town manager, friends remember the man behind the title

By Gloria I. Wang

Russell Jesse Cooney was a man of many contradictions. He was socially active, yet a homebody; full of laughter, yet reserved; held a political job, yet was not a typical politician.

What is clear though, his friends say, was that Cooney touched people's lives.

The former Los Gatos town manager died on July 20 of natural causes. He was 87 years old and had lived in Los Gatos until last year, when he was moved to a nursing home in Los Angeles due to failing health.

Cooney, who was called "Russ" by those who knew him, had lived in Los Gatos since 1967, when he was hired as the town manager. He retired in 1976 but remained active in the community and still lived in his home on Los Gatos-Almaden Road with his wife, Julia, until her death in November 1999. "He always said he wanted to be carried feet-first out of that house," said daughter Judy Welch, who lives in Studio City, Calif.

"Although we have enjoyed everywhere in California we have lived, I think we both would say that Los Gatos has been the most enjoyable," Cooney wrote in a family memoir in the late 1980s. "We will probably live here the rest of our lives."

As town manager, the 5-foot-7-inch Cooney oversaw the implementation of such projects as the annual Fiesta de Artes, partnering with Zijuatanejo, Mexico, as Los Gatos' sister city, expanding the town library, and having the county take over the town's fire service.

Colleagues paint a portrait of a town manager who wasn't afraid to express his feelings and always lived up to his standards. "I don't think he pussyfooted around anybody," said deputy town clerk and former Councilwoman Marlyn Rasmussen. "I don't think he danced around any town council members."

Mardi Gualtieri, mayor of Los Gatos in 1978, called Cooney a "consummate professional" who "didn't speak in 'bureaucrat-ese.'" He was diplomatic and knowledgeable about state and town law, Gualtieri said.

Professionalism is a willingness to ignore the risk in order to give the right advice and to be objective, an apt description of Cooney, according to Preston Hill, Los Gatos Town Attorney from 1971 to 1980. "He was well-liked," Hill said. "But he didn't sacrifice his integrity to be liked."

Bill Avery was town manager from 1976 to 1980 and regarded Cooney as his mentor. "He was probably the single biggest influence on my career," Avery said. As a college student, Avery worked in Cooney's office in 1972 as an intern and became the assistant town manager after graduation. After Cooney retired, he was replaced by Avery, who was 27 years old at the time. Avery says that Cooney was instrumental in his appointment.

"He instilled in me an appreciation for the government," Avery said.

Avery also noted that Cooney had tremendous foresight and could easily put things in perspective on the job. In his job today as a human resources consultant who specializes in executive searches--helping to bring current town manager Debra Figone to Los Gatos--Avery says he still practices much of what Cooney taught him. "He was an altogether delightful gentleman with a wonderful sense of humor," Avery said.

Cooney's others activities included being on the YMCA Board of Directors, serving in the vestry of St. Luke's Episcopal Church and joining the Los Gatos Rotary Club.

Rotarian Don Bacci said that Cooney was a wonderful speaker with a "great vocabulary" and was very dedicated to the town of Los Gatos. He was very straightforward and honest in all of his activities, which sometimes people didn't like, Bacci said.

John Pencer, another Rotarian, said, "Russ was kind of a quiet guy." Pencer, who served in the YMCA with Cooney, called him "influential and understated."

Cooney was born in 1914 in Fall City, Neb., the eldest of four children. Although his family was not wealthy, Cooney managed to excel in playing the violin and found odd jobs that he called fun; he was a waiter, soda jerk, shoe salesman and door-to-door magazine salesman. Cooney and his friends also once took a cross-country trip by riding the rails and begging for food.

In 1937, while working in Nebraska City, Neb., for the state, he met 17-year-old Julia and "fell hopelessly in love at first sight," Cooney wrote in his memoirs. They eloped three months later and went on to have two daughters--Judy, now 61, and Pat, 55. "We knew our love for each other would last forever," Cooney wrote.


Photograph courtesy of Judy Welch

Russ and Julia Cooney posing in the backyard of their Los Gatos home in 1990.




The Cooneys moved to Southern California where Cooney found a job with Lockheed. In the years before the family came to Los Gatos, Cooney worked as the personnel director for the county of San Mateo and cities of Pasadena and Merced, and served under Gov. Pat Brown in the state department that is now called Caltrans. In the meantime, Cooney took night classes and earned a bachelor's degree in city management from the University of Southern California. He later completed an advanced management program at the Harvard Business School.

Cooney retired as town manager in 1976, but continued to participate in various local activities. He was the general manager of the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad for a time, was a consultant for city governments in California and served as a member of the town of Los Gatos Personnel Board.

Both daughters say that their father taught them valuable lessons in life. "He was driven to be successful, to give his family a better life. He was kind of an around-the-home guy," Pat Cunningham said. "But he had a huge sense of community."

Cunningham says that her father often told the girls how much he loved them and how proud he was of them. Family, to Cooney, was the most important thing in the world. By watching her parents, Cunningham learned that "a loving marriage can sustain you through all the ups and downs that life can bring."

Welch, Cooney's older daughter, said that he was always there for her and was devoted to their mother even during her long, terrible illness. Cooney was energetic and knew a lot of people, but at the same time was family-oriented and "was just a putterer."

"He was a devoted family man," said Susan Simek, secretary to the town manager. Although Cooney preferred to stay in Los Gatos, Simek said that it made him happy to be near his daughter in Studio City after he moved to Los Angeles. He also enjoyed the company of his three grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Julia died in November 1999, after 61 years of marriage. As a result, Welch said, Cooney started losing weight drastically and became very weak. For a little while, he was in a local nursing home before moving to Southern California. On July 6, Cooney broke some ribs after he suffered a fall. In addition, he had pneumonia and congestive heart failure, which contributed to his death.

Cooney did not want a funeral and requested that his body be cremated; the family held a small service in Los Angeles and will scatter his ashes at sea. While he was living in Los Gatos, Welch said, her father had envisioned having a memorial service at St. Luke's. But because there are no family members in the Bay Area the service would be extremely difficult to coordinate.

His friends, however, are quick to eulogize him.

"He was an outstanding man who cared very deeply for this town," Marlyn Rasmussen said.

Preston Hill added, "It was a privilege to know him."

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