Advertising vet Jane Coladarci departs Almanac after 30 years Advertising vet Jane Coladarci departs Almanac after 30 years (March 10, 2004)

** She was the "rock" of the advertising department, publisher says.

By Andrea Gemmet
Almanac Staff Writer

Jane Coladarci, a mainstay of the Almanac's advertising department for 30 years, recently announced her retirement to the surprise and dismay of colleagues.

"Jane certainly was the embodiment of the Almanac's dedication to serving the business community in Menlo Park, and she did so with consummate sensitivity and grace," said former Almanac publisher Mort Levine. "She is going to be missed."

Ms. Coladarci, a Woodside resident, joined the Almanac in 1974 after deciding she had too much time on her hands after her youngest child went off the college, she said. The proximity of the Almanac's office in the basement of a building where the Village Pub is currently located was a deciding factor, she said, as there was a gas crisis at the time.

She launched her career as a working woman at the age of 54 by taking the receptionist job at the newspaper's front desk, although her very first job at the Almanac was less glamorous -- pasting mailing labels on the newspapers, she said.

Despite the cramped quarters -- "the typesetter worked in a literal closet with a bare lightbulb overhead" -- "everyone was happy as a clam," Ms. Coladarci recalls.

"I answered the phone, took care of the mail and subscriptions, did the shopping, went to the bank, took dictation from (Almanac co-founder) Betty Fry and did accounts receivable," Ms. Coladarci said in a 1990 interview.

Mardell Ward, who headed up the advertising department, recalls that while Ms. Coladarci was very good at the receptionist job, she "clearly had other talents."

"I suggested she try out as an advertising salesperson, and she turned out to be extremely good at it," Ms. Ward said.

Ms. Coladarci had a slightly different recollection of launching her sales career, which she recounted for a 1990 story about the Almanac's 25th anniversary.

"Well, they turned me loose with no instruction, no territory, but I was determined to make a go of it. I went after anything from Mountain View to Burlingame," she said.

She met with a great deal of success, according to Ms. Ward. Ms. Coladarci quickly left the receptionist's desk behind to take on a full-time sales job, which she held for 25 years, working for three publishers and numerous ad managers. Big clients included Menlo Park Hardware and Ace Hardware, jewelers Hirzel and Timothy Fidge, Beltramo's market, and the Sharon Heights and Ladera shopping centers.

"I loved it," Ms. Coladarci said. "I had all the biggies and lot of the little ones. I always thought that little ads were the backbone of the paper and shouldn't be neglected."

She recalls clients arriving on horseback to deliver classified ads. The horses, she said, left their own calling cards.

Back in those days, sales reps decided who was a good credit risk, and a handshake was as good as a contract, she said. She enjoyed the creative aspects of the job, which included designing ads.

"My biggest thrill was getting clients to trust me and make decisions on their behalf," she said. "I never gave them a snow job, because I'd rather have them trust me."

In 1999, Ms. Coladarci started retiring "in bits and pieces," moving to the part-time position of advertising assistant.

"She was very much beloved by her customers," said Ms. Ward. "People are going to be sorry to hear that she's retiring, although she certainly deserves it."

Ms. Ward said she was impressed by how Ms. Coladarci made the transition from homemaker to working woman, and how she was able to balance family life with her career, and enjoy both. Her late husband Art was the dean of Stanford University's School of Education.

"She managed to make that conversion much more readily than most people did at that time," Ms. Ward said. "She still did all these things with her husband, yet completely embraced this new chapter (in her life) and did it very, very well."

Almanac publisher and editor-in-chief Tom Gibboney said that when he arrived at the Almanac in 1993, Jane was the rock of the advertising department.

" She handled all the downtown accounts, and kept us in touch with the major Menlo Park advertisers," he said. "I have appreciated her feisty personality in the years I've been here, and I know that earlier Almanac employees did as well."

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