RONALD FRANK ANTONIOLI

Ronald Frank Antonioli August 10, 1929-September 18, 2010 In Memory of a Good Man Ronald Antonioli passed away on Saturday with his family by his side. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage after a sudden fall in his Novato home, on September 18. Son of the late Anna and Frank Antonioli, and brother to Robert Antonioli who passed away in 2007, Ron was raised in a Yugoslav-Californian family that extended from the Bay Area to the Central Valley. Growing up in San Francisco and Marin County, he attended Grant Primary, Lowell High School, and the College of Marin while working for his father's construction company in San Rafael. An accomplished builder with a keen sense of detail and strong drive, in the 1950s he formed his own independent company, Ronald Antonioli, Inc., and built more than 140 commercial structures in Marin County. As observed by George Wagner, Ron was a pioneer in the use of concrete tilt-up building technology, a process that involves pouring concrete building walls in frames atop the concrete floor, and when dried, tilting up the frames by crane and setting the walls in place. Ron was one of the leading contractor/developers for Northgate Business Park, Hamilton Industrial Park, and Bel Marin Keys Business Park. His active construction and development company was responsible for many local landmarks, such as the Handi-Kup building, the Tiburon Lodge, the Guide Dogs for the Blind campus, the China Cabin, and the Triple A Building. He developed many apartment complexes and shopping centers in Marin and throughout the Bay Area, but always maintained his Marin County base. Ron was passionate about the arts. According to his long-standing friend since their early childhood, William Knorp, Ron was a consummate pianist who found special pleasure in playing and in listening to others play. Many concerts were performed at his home throughout the years. These included more than a decade of support for the San Domenico School Music Conservatory and Virtuoso Program, and that program's chamber concerts, which, according to Faith France and Hugo Rinaldi, impacted the lives and careers of brilliant young artists at a critical point in their professional development. He also hosted performances by the College of Marin Choir, the Thursday Musical Program, and the Concerts Grand series. Terry McNeill remembers Ron's active interest in AMICA, the club that restored and played mechanical pianos such as Welte, Artreo-Angeles, Hupfeld and Ampico. He also recalls Ron's hosting of musicales, attended on some occasions by the famed Hungarian pianist, Ervin Nyiregyhazi, and later by the virtuoso Jorge Bolet. Ron's other interests included the collection of antiques and works of art. He was an aficionado of 17th and 18th century French and Italian art and antiques, which he patronized at home and studied in their contexts abroad, especially in Rome, Paris and St. Petersburg. If his interest in art was an expression of his keen artistic sensibility, his love of fine and exemplary antique furniture originated in his profound appreciation and understanding of the superior craftsmanship required for their production, doubtless based on his own work experience. Examples of his passion for fine craftsmanship were the frequent revisions and esthetic refinements made to his own house, to the amusement of many friends who dubbed it his Winchester House. Ron's philanthropic contributions to various organizations include generous gifts of funds and antiquities to the University of California at Berkeley, where he is commemorated on the north wall of the Doe Library as one of the "Builders of Berkeley." Whereas in his early years Ron had enjoyed duck hunting in the bay area wetlands and had made annual deer hunting trips to Wyoming and to his much-cherished Grand Tetons, in his later years he focused his efforts towards the protection of open space, especially in northwestern California. He was an avid hiker and mycologist, with a passion for the white king bolete and the golden chanterelle which he enjoyed as a favorite meal. At home, he carefully tended and nurtured his French garden, his cypresses, roses, and his vegetable plots. Among Ron's greatest pleasures was the company of his friends and family. Always a gentleman, according to his friend Jim Westenbroek, Ron was good-natured, with a lively and lovely spirit that will be missed by all who had him in their lives. He leaves behind his wife Guitty Azarpay, his children Laurie Anna Antonioli and son Daniel Ronald Antonioli, daughter and son of Gretchen Gregory, grand-daughter Mayana Morgan Lea and step-daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter Vesa, Gwenael and Nina Becam. As well as his sister-in-law Baerbel Freitag, and his extended family the Muziniches and the Antoniolis in the Bay Area and the Antonioli family in Budva, Montenegro. Ron had countless friends, some of whom he had known since childhood, and others with whom he subsequently developed close ties. A private memorial for Ron will be held at a later date. Donations in his name may be made to a charity of your choice, or to the Bancroft Library, the University of California, Berkeley Foundation, 2080 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA, 94720.