Our Views: Looking back at two who helped make Modesto a better place
We’ve started a new year, and there are many possibilities to create, accomplish and improve our lives laid out before us.
Before we start staring too intently at the bright road ahead, we should pause a moment and look back down the road we’ve traveled – and those who helped pave the way. On that road, we’re bound to see two leading lights – Dave Geer and George Pettygrove, both of whom passed in the last week.
Geer, a champion of the west side
Dave Geer moved to the west side of Modesto in 1987, and though many would describe the area as blighted or violent, he never regretted it. In fact, he embraced it.
After his wife, Patty, passed in 1999, Geer poured his energies into the community, getting involved in the Salvation Army, the King-Kennedy Center and other community organizations. Eventually, that involvement led him to politics and he was elected to the Modesto City Council in the city’s first district elections in 2009.
As detailed in the story by reporter Kevin Valine, Geer had friends throughout the city. But those he cared most about – and who cared most for him – were his west side neighbors. Geer, 72, gave up his seat on the Council after one term, and began taking every opportunity to speak out against the Common Core curriculum being implemented nationwide. But that isn’t what endeared him to so many. It was the smile on his face as he served, volunteered and worked to improve the lives of those around him.
Pettygrove embodied love of learning
George Pettygrove was a lifelong educator who touched countless lives as a teacher, high school principal and administrator. He was honored by his school district, his city and even by California’s governor. But you would never know that from talking to George.
After retiring from Modesto City Schools, Pettygrove got the idea for the Modesto Institute of Continued Learning while visiting his sister in San Diego. It was a program for seniors, run by seniors, to continue their educations through lectures, learning and doing. To get it started, he reached out to Bette Belle Smith, and with help from Modesto Junior College and others they got the program going. With more help from his wife and many others, Pettygrove helped MICL (affectionately called “Michael” by the hundreds taking classes) thrive.
Always, he deflected the accolades – to his sister, to Smith, to Ken Rowland or Harry Wiser. That was Pettygrove’s way.
Pettygrove was a visiting editor with The Bee in 2005 and wrote many letters to the editor. In those letters, he praised retiring Modesto City Schools Superintendent Jim Enochs, cheered the appointment of Odessa Johnson as a University of California regent, complimented community columnist Don Shaw for urging respect for all faiths, and reminded people to show more compassion to others regardless of circumstances or sexual orientation. A kind, gentle, humble man.
His last letter to The Bee arrived in 2011. He was responding to a letter that had criticized a city official. “Before we vent our peeves in public,” he wrote, “let us learn the circumstances and see if we might do something about it where it might make a difference.”
Pettygrove passed Dec. 27; a memorial service is tentatively planned for Jan. 22, at First United Methodist Church in Modesto.
Yes, it’s a new year and there is much we can and will accomplish in the next 362 days. Let’s try to approach our tasks with the same enthusiasm, joy and selflessness as those who have traveled this road before us.
This story was originally published January 2, 2015 at 4:35 PM with the headline "Our Views: Looking back at two who helped make Modesto a better place."