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daring in his business ventures.  He taught school only a few years.  Then he entered politics and was elected to a number of county offices; no doubt he could have made a career of public life.  He organized one of the first electric power companies in California as well as a Prune Growers Association.  But his greatest satisfaction came from buying a ranch and improving it, bringing to bear his immense knowledge of the fruits and vegetables best suited to the Sonoma Valley.  Then he would sell the ranch and move on to repeat the process on another one.  Not all his ventures were successful, not through any fault of his, but because of the vagaries of weather and the other factors that affect a rancher's fortunes.  So we knew some very lean times between the good years.  He loved the land and the open air and the big sky.  He was only one generation removed from the tough breed of pioneers who came around the Horn to California looking for gold, and he was typical of them, a proud, strong, self-reliant man.  Like many of them, Father was not destined to die peacefully in bed.