Longtime Sonoma County educator, Lynn D. Anderson died on 16 March 2021 after a protracted illness and heart complications. He spent his entire 33 year teaching career in the Cloverdale Unified School District, from which he retired at the end of the 2005 school year.
Born in Los Angeles in 1945, Lynn spent most of his youth in Salinas, CA until his parents’ divorce in 1957 when he returned to Southern California with his mother, attending schools in Inglewood. He returned to live with his father and graduated from Salinas High School in 1963.
He joined the U.S. Air Force that same June where he was trained to maintain and repair aerial photographic equipment. His tour of duty took him to Tucson AZ, Bien Hoa Vietnam with the 4080th AEMS, Kadena Okinawa and northern Thailand with the 20th tactical fighter squadron. It was while stationed on Okinawa that he began to take education seriously and started taking college classes through the University of Maryland’s overseas extension program.
At the completion of his enlistment, Lynn worked briefly at MacDonald Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, CA, before returning to his education at El Camino College in Torrance, CA. He continued his love of photography by working for various studios as a wedding photographer. He was married to C. Ann Heath of Inglewood from 1968 to 1975. The marriage produced two daughters, Karen, now living in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Rebecca, now living in Garland, Texas.
He transferred to Humboldt State College in the fall of 1969, where he completed his Bachelor’s program and teaching credential with a major in Industrial Arts and a minor in Geology/Earth Science. In 1972, he was hired to teach seventh grade science and to begin a “shop” program at Washington School. After Proposition 13 decimated elective programs, he was assigned to teach seventh grade mathematics.
In 1977, he married Candy Paulson, who has been his loving companion for 43 years. Together they made their home in Healdsburg.
In 1987, he transferred to Cloverdale High School where he took over the woodworking and drafting program from the previous teacher, who had retired. At Cloverdale High School, he also taught science, math and career planning. In 2001, he returned to Washington School, where he taught the eighth grade science classes.
Interests through his life have included backpacking, fly fishing, cross country skiing and winter camping, downhill skiing, gardening, woodworking, lapidary work and jewelry making, dog training, bicycling and astronomy. With the Sonoma County Astronomical Society, he often participated in public viewing activities and school star parties. He has been a volunteer docent at the Robert Ferguson Observatory since 1997. He enjoyed travel and often combined his interest in astronomy by traveling to different parts of the world to view solar eclipses. His eclipse travels have taken him to the Caribbean, Germany/Austria, Zambia, Spain, Egypt and China. He often advocated that everyone should put seeing a total solar eclipse on their 50 things to do before they die list. In recent years, Lynn became an avid Giants’ Fan, often attending games in San Francisco.
He is survived by his wife, Candy; his two daughters, Karen and Rebecca; his grandchildren, Luken and Keeley; and several thousand students whose lives he touched.
He has requested rather that people should plant a flowering bush or a tree as a living memorial. Donations in Lynn’s name may be made to the Robert Ferguson Observatory – VMOA, PO Box 898, Glen Ellen, CA 95442, or the Diabetes Society of Sonoma County, 365-B Tesconi Circle, Santa Rosa, CA 95401. A Celebration of Life is planned for this summer.
