Richard Bugarske, long an active member of youth sports and civic organizations including Kiwanis and the Healdsburg High Boosters, as well as a former school board member, will be honored with the Pioneer Award from the Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society at their annual History Lives dinner on Sept. 12.
“While considering an honoree this year, we wanted to honor someone who is always rooting for our community with a commitment to service. Dick is just that person. He is ready in a minute’s notice to pitch in and help find solutions to the challenges facing the various organizations he serves,” said Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society president Susan Sheehy.
The History Lives event annually honors a Healdsburg Pioneer, an individual with deep roots in the local area, strong community involvement and leadership in their profession. This year’s honoree, Bugarske, 75, is a former teacher, school board member, co-principal at Healdsburg High School and president of the Prune Packers organization.
He is sometimes known as the “Voice of Healdsburg” for his many years announcing for HHS sports and the Prune Packers baseball team, which just completed its third successive run for the California Collegiate League baseball championship.
Bugarske is also a past member of Healdsburg’s Park and Recreation Commission (1980-2015) and currently serves on the board of several foundations that benefit youth sports, including Healdsburg SOS (Supporting our Soldiers).
“The Pioneer Award is a wonderful honor,” said Bugarske. “Being in the company of the past honorees is humbling. I am such a product of my family and my community, so this is as much about them as me.”
Previous Pioneer Award winners include many names familiar to Healdsburg residents: from Joe Vercelli (1999), Lou Foppiano Sr., Francis Passalacqua, Robert Young, Milt Brandt, Joe Rochiolli Jr., Arnold Santucci, Edgar Deas, Nancy and Karl Seppi, to Jerry and Joanna Engelke (2022), among many others.
Ed Seghesio, who recently passed away, shared the award with Rachele Ann Passalacqua Seghesio in 2008.
The History Lives fundraiser for the museum will be held at the Robert Young Winery, Scion House in Alexander Valley on Saturday, Sept. 12. The event is sold out, but an online silent auction will be open to the public from Sept. 4-13.
Along with vacation stays, wine bundles and cooking classes, a more unusual auction item is being listed this year: a plot in the old section of Oak Mound Cemetery.
The plot, which has a starting bid of $3,000, was donated to the museum by James and Virginia Zobel when they moved to Auburn and no longer needed it. It’s in the old cemetery, where there are no longer any plots available for purchase, nestled on a slope surrounded by oaks and oleanders.
More information on the live auction can be found at healdsburgmuseum.ejoinme.org/historylives2023.
