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Sue Crane, a former Portola Valley Town Council member and the last living founder of Ridge Vineyards, died on March 14, 2025, surrounded by family at her home in The Sequoias. She was 92.
Born in Jersey City, N.J., on Sept. 11, 1932, to Rachel and Aaron Gorlin, Crane was the oldest of three siblings. Crane graduated with a degree in psychology at Beaver College (now Arcadia University) in Pennsylvania in 1954. The same year, she married Hewitt Crane, known familiarly as Hew, at the Pierre Hotel in New York City.
In 1956, Hew brought the couple to Menlo Park, where he would eventually become a visionary recognized for his creativity and organizational skills at Stanford Research Institute, now SRI International.
Sue spent two years working as an executive secretary for Sunset Magazine, then headquartered in Menlo Park, before becoming pregnant with her first son, Russ, in 1958. Son Doug was born in 1959 and Dan in 1961.
With three SRI colleagues and their families, Hew and Sue Crane co-founded Ridge Vineyards in 1959 on Monte Bello Road in Santa Clara County. Ridge’s stature as one of the world’s premiere wineries was reinforced in 2006 when its cabernet took first place in the 30th anniversary of the rematch of the 1976 “Judgment of Paris,” comparing the best of French and California wines.
The Cranes moved to Portola Valley in 1964 to raise their sons. Civic engagement and volunteerism played a big part in Sue’s life once she moved to town.
Sue Crane served on the Portola Valley Planning Commission from 1980 to 1982. She was a council member from 1982 to 1993. She played an integral role in purchasing the land to create the Town Center and played a key part in guiding the general plan in 1979. She served on the Friends of the Portola Valley Library board. She volunteered for Planned Parenthood and as a mediator, and was active in land conservation efforts.
In recent years, she served as the liaison between The Sequoias senior living residences, where she called home since 2014, and the town. She was a member of the town’s Housing Element Committee, which helped steer the town’s 2023-31 housing plans.
The council presented Sue with a lifetime achievement award for her contributions to the town in 2023.
John Richards, who worked with Crane on the council, said that she was always determined to “get small town government right,” and “she has managed to always be a positive voice getting there.”
Sarah Wernikoff didn’t cross paths with Crane until 2020, but Crane reached out to Wernikoff when she heard Wernikoff was seeking a seat on the council.
“From our first conversation, I was immediately impressed by her — her depth of knowledge on issues past and present, her incredible memory and historical perspective, her energy and passion, her fun sense of humor, and of course, her values,” said Wernikoff, who was a council member from 2020 to 2024, in an email. “What began as Zoom calls during COVID to discuss town issues quickly grew into a fast and special friendship — one that extended beyond community service, as we shared stories about our families, friends and our lives.”
Outside of her civic life, Crane developed a love of making pottery while raising her sons in the 1960s.
“Imagine three boys born in three years,” said her youngest son Doug. “She used to go to the Palo Alto (Art) Center to take a class in pottery as an excuse to get out of the house.”
Eventually, Hew Crane built a pottery studio at home with kilns and would make plates, bowls and platters. His wife would make her own glazes from vine prunings from the winery and calligraphy brushes from deer tails, said Doug. Later, she volunteered as a pottery teacher in Portola Valley’s public schools, according to her family.
It’s in a pottery class that she met Helen Bigelow, who would go on to be one of her neighbors at The Sequoias. In 2023, the pair teamed up to publish Beyond the Barrels: The Women of Ridge, which explored Ridge Vineyards’ early days, the families, the land and untold stories of the women who contributed to this world-renowned vineyard from Crane’s perspective.
Bigelow described Crane as “smart, aware, sensitive, perceptive, insightful, funny and fun.”
“A highlight was the two years we spent working every Wednesday as she told me her story of being part of the founding families of Ridge, and I then hurried home to my computer and wrote the story for her,” Bigelow said in an email. “For the rest of my life, I will love remembering my great friend Sue Crane.”
Doug said that he will miss his mother’s generosity and dedication to family. He also described his parents as very good connectors of people.
“Everyone (holds) such a high esteem for my mom,” he said.
Sue Crane is preceded in death by her husband of 54 years, Hew, who died in 2008, and her sister Diane. She is survived by her sister Brenda Goldman and her three sons: Russ, Doug and Dan. Russ lives in Santa Barbara with his wife Christa. Doug lives in Palo Alto with his wife Pilar Badillo. Dan lives in Portola Valley with his wife Harriet Rotter-Crane. Sue is also survived by her five grandchildren: Andrés, Gabriel, Sophie, Rachel and Melissa; and a great grandchild expected in the summer.
In lieu of flowers, Sue’s family asks to consider donating to the Peninsula Open Space Trust at openspacetrust.org/ways-to-give or Branch Services, a new Portola Valley nonprofit that provides support services for people with intellectual delays and autism, at branchservices.org.
Memorial services have not yet been planned.
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