John Hawley Olds La Gatta

JOHN HAWLEY OLDS LA GATTA

Longtime community leader and philanthropist, John H. O. La Gatta, 81, died Friday after a battle with cancer.

John La Gatta was an active member of the community who served on the boards of numerous foundations and nonprofits, including the Desert Research Institute, Nevada Museum of Art, Sage Ridge and Mariposa Schools.

La Gatta was the son of John La Gatta Sr., a famous illustrator and contemporary of Norman Rockwell in the 20's and 30's whose paintings routinely appeared on the covers of major magazines, including the Saturday Evening Post and Esquire. John grew up in Long Island, NY, and Santa Monica, CA, among artists, models, and composers. He credits this childhood for his admiration of the arts. La Gatta donated generously to the Nevada Museum of Art, and has a gallery named in his honor.

John founded Olds Properties, a real estate investment firm, and served as president of the Catamount Fund, a nonprofit that supported the arts, science, education and public policy in Nevada. La Gatta's Catamount Fund produced a number of influential papers on topics ranging from improving Nevada's tax environment to economic growth strategies.

John La Gatta is also known as a generous host, opening his home for numerous parties and fundraisers. He loved nothing more than bringing people together around a table of good food, drink and lively conversation. He was a true epicure, and thought nothing of flying in emu, abalone, or truffles for a dinner. His annual crawdad party was famous throughout Reno for bringing together friends and colleagues from all walks of life, and their children, to fish crawdads out of the Truckee river.

John's two favorite pastimes were tennis and fishing. He played tennis for most of his adult life. In his more mature years, he preferred watching tennis, particularly the women's competitions. He made several trips to the Australian Open and the US Open. His fishing career began as a young boy, and stayed with him his entire life. This passion took him to many exotic locales, including the Kimberly in Australia, the South Island of New Zealand, and the rainforests of Costa Rica.

John was a long time member of the Prospectors Club and a frequent fixture at the Club during lunch. He also frequented Rapscallion's to fraternize with the old Reno crowd.

He had a witty and dry sense of humor and loved to provoke political sparring matches. A week before his death he was still crafting partisan jokes.

He loved Reno, the Ruby Mountains, Elko, the endless resources and all the economic potential Northern Nevada has to offer. He also loved to travel and would visit Australia every winter for some warm weather, and Martinis down under. He was passionate about education reform, and hoped to galvanize an educational symposium in the Lake Tahoe region. John was a creative problem solver, a true intellectual, and quite the strategist.

One of his greatest gifts though was that of networker. John was capable of bringing extraordinary people together to advance a cause, and bring out the best in each of them. He was a visionary, but wouldn't want to be known as such; he was all about understated elegance, a class act. One close friend described him as a "silent hero". "One of the finest people I've ever known" says another. Indeed, as one friend noted, more great ideas emanated from the gatherings that John arranged than from virtually any other source.

May you rest in peace beloved father, grandfather, and trust that we will carry your ideas forward.

He is survived by his daughter, Alexandra La Gatta, of Berkeley, CA, son John La Gatta II, from San Rafael, CA, and grandsons Jackson La Gatta and Maxi La Gatta.

Visitation is at 10 am with services to follow at 11 am on Saturday, Dec 19 at Mountain View Mortuary. Private burial.