With the snip of a red ribbon with a pair of giant scissors in August 2016, it was preordained what the first sentence of Healdsburg’s Mel Amato’s obituary would contain, whenever that time would come. Amato was the man who almost singlehandedly saved Healdsburg’s Memorial Bridge from demolition by Caltrans, deploying all of his engineering prowess to repudiate a cadre of Caltrans engineers and prove the historic landmark was worthy of preservation. The Ohio native lived his last two decades in Healdsburg contributing to many community and local historical causes. He died on Nov. 16 at the age of 86.
Amato served for many years on the board of the Healdsburg Historical Society, including as chair, and in 2010 he was awarded the Edwin Langhart Award, named after the Healdsburg Museum’s founder. He was a very active member of St. John the Baptist Church of Healdsburg.
Carmelo (Mel) Amato was born Oct. 9, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Case Western Reserve. He also earned a second master’s in business administration from Wayne State University. His engineering career started at Detroit’s Ford Research Labs, before heading west to Menlo Park and Cupertino, CA. He registered several patents for his work in creating and testing batteries for automobiles and power plants.
Amato is survived by his wife of 68 years Germaine (Geri), and by his children, Anna Amato, Anita Amato Rushlow, Anthony Amato (Melissa), grandsons Dominic Good and Nicholas Amato, siblings Raymond Amato, Joan Gregor, Diane Amato, and many cousins, nephews and nieces.
In 2007, Caltrans determined the Memorial Bridge built in 1921 was vulnerable to an earthquake or heavy flooding and was too narrow for modern vehicle traffic. The City of Healdsburg was allowed two years to study alternative plans to update, replace or otherwise address the seismic and structural problems.
A Caltrans report in 2008 gave the bridge a safety rating of two out a possible 100 point score. In an article published at the time in The Healdsburg Tribune it was reported that, “out of a possible rating of 100, Healdsburg’s Memorial Bridge was rated a 2. That is, until Healdsburg resident Mel Amato got ahold of the Caltrans formula for bridge sufficiency ratings.
“After spending four weeks gathering data, climbing under the bridge to get a closer look and entering numbers into complex equations, Amato said he found an error in the math of the original calculation, which decreased the rating substantially.”
Through several more years of public hearings and follow-up engineer reports, Amato rallied a band of citizens to lobby the city council to preserve the bridge. Amato had discovered a previous Caltrans study dating from 1979 which then-city engineer Mike Kirns later confirmed from Amato’s sleuthing.
Visitation and a memorial service were held this week at St. John’s. In lieu of flowers, and per Mel’s wishes, the family suggests donations be made in Mel’s name to the St. John the Baptist Healdsburg School Foundation. sjshbg.org/foundation
