LOWER LAKE ? The memory and life-service of Russell L. Rustici will live forever in Lower Lake. A special ceremony was held on March 7 in which the beautiful Lower Lake Community Park was dedicated in his honor.
A pillar of the community, Rustici”s goodwill had stretched for miles throughout the Bay Area and Lake County. A man who enjoyed helping those who helped themselves, Rustici has left a lasting memory that will continue to provide for the future for many years to come.
Rustici was born in San Francisco on Oct. 23, 1923 and died in Clearlake on Oct. 5, 2008. As board director for the Lower Lake
Community Action Group, he was a familiar face found in the kitchen or behind the grill at all the group”s functions. He didn”t much care for holding the spotlight and had often told this reporter he just there to cook.
Rustici was a 1948 graduate of UC Berkeley where he earned his bachelor”s degree in civil engineering. After being instrumental in the development of the South San Francisco Produce Market and retiring from family-owned business, Sunset Produce Company, Rustici relocated to Lake County in the 1960s.
In Lake County he pursued a lifelong ambition to live a quintessential western life and became a cattle rancher. He also developed a deep interest in natural resources management.
Being a philanthropist, Rustici endowed three academic chairs in the University of California system. At Berkeley”s College of Natural Resources, he established the Russell Rustici Chair in Rangeland Management. UC Davis, he endowed two chairs in rangeland, water and soil sciences. For students, he established a number of scholarships including the Rustici Livestock and Rangeland Scholarship Endowment, administered by the California Farm Bureau Scholarship Federation.
Most recently, Rustici”s goodwill has touched the students of Carl? High School in Lower Lake, where a $300,000 endowment will fund a scholarship program for graduating seniors.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
