Laura Tietz
Sept. 28, 1927-April 5, 2020
Calistoga, California
Laura Sherman Tietz (née Dawn Sherman) died peacefully at her home in Calistoga on Sunday April 5, 2020. She was born Dawn Sherman on September 28, 1927 in Stockton, California, to Floyd Paul Sherman and Martha Rose Farrington Sherman. Both the Shermans and Farringtons were early colonial families who arrived in California in the 1800s.
Laura was raised in Northern California from Niles Canyon in Alameda County to the redwoods in Mendocino County. She graduated from Ukiah High School in 1944 and met her future husband, Thomas Edwin Tietz, at the age of 16 in her first days as a freshman at UC Berkeley. Laura and Tom were married for 60 years until Tom’s death in 2007. While at Berkeley she studied English literature. After attending a wartime course at Stanford University where she was trained to be a chemical analyst, she returned to Berkeley and changed her major to chemistry. In the 1970s she worked at SRI in Menlo Park in their electrochemistry lab.
On October 19, 1947 Laura married and changed her name, saying that Dawn was not a name to grow old with. She and Tom settled in Palo Alto in 1955, built a home in Los Altos Hills in 1960, then moved to Fitch Mountain in Healdsburg in 2005. Laura had lived in Calistoga for one year at the time of her death. She loved Calistoga and the neighbors she met there. She enjoyed porch parties, walking in the neighborhood, and especially dancing and people-watching at the summer concerts in the park.
Laura had a lifelong interest in community service and social justice. She was a founder of Summer Discovery multicultural day camp in East Palo Alto in the 1960s. For many years she volunteered on the Santa Clara County Suicide and Crisis hotline. She was especially proud of her work for SACS and the lives she saved. In Healdsburg she established the non-profit organization FireFreeFitch, a fire-awareness program. She also served on the grant committee for Healdsburg Forever.
Laura was an adventurer, a poet, an avid lifelong reader, a listener, and a learner. She saw every aspect of life as something to be understood and savored. She said yes to every offer and delighted in new experiences. She had joie-de-vivre that was contagious. She loved the Sierra mountains, swimming, traveling, drinking good wine, art, opera, and attending the symphony. At 70 she became a certified SCUBA diver and enjoyed diving until her 90th birthday. She delighted and inspired her friends and family and will be greatly missed.
Laura is survived by her three children, Paul Tietz of Healdsburg; Sara Tietz Kozel (Edward) of Calistoga; and Mark Tietz (Diana) of Healdsburg. She is the grandmother of Derek Kozel (Charis) of Cardiff, Wales; Adryon Kozel; Emilie Kozel Rance (Tom) of London, UK; and Aleta Pierce.
A celebration of life will be scheduled later this year. To receive details or share memories, please email laura@maacama.com or send to Laura Tietz, PO Box 889, Calistoga CA 94515.
