[env-trinity] Marin Independent Journal

[Tom Stokely]

Former Marin supervisor Byron Leydecker dies at 84

http://www.marinij.com/tiburonbelvedere/ci_18060573
By Rob Rogers
Marin Independent Journal


Posted: 05/14/2011 04:52:00 PM PDT


Former Marin County supervisor Byron Leydecker died Thursday, May 12, 2011. He was instrumental protecting Northern California rivers.
Byron Waite Leydecker, a former Marin County supervisor and bank owner who spent the plast 18 years of his life working to restore the Trinity River, died at his Mill Valley home Thursday. He was 84.

"Byron was a tireless fighter for fish and rivers, as much so as probably anybody you would find anywhere," said Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, who visited Mr. Leydecker last week. "He especially fought for the Trinity River, which was nearest to his heart."

Born Aug. 28, 1927, in Oakland, Mr. Leydecker moved to Modesto with his family while he was in the ninth grade. After graduating from high school in 1945, Mr. Leydecker enlisted in the Navy. He saw duty on the USS Iowa as a seaman and cruised into Tokyo Bay shortly after the Japanese surrender.

Mr. Leydecker enrolled in Modesto Junior College after his discharge and later attended Stanford University, where he graduated in 1950 with a degree in economics. Before he could begin his career, however, Mr. Leydecker became California's first veteran to be called up for service in the Korean War. Drafted into the Army, Mr. Leydecker became assistant to a public relations officer at Camp Detrick, Md.

After a brief stint as a securities analyst, Mr. Leydecker joined Crocker-Anglo National Bank in 1953 and was appointed as assistant manager to the bank's Chico office in 1954. In 1958, Mr. Leydecker became manager and assistant vice president at the bank's office in San Rafael. He

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immediately became active in many local organizations, including the Marin County Humane Society, San Rafael Military Academy, Marin Industrial Development Foundation and Marin Music Chest.

Although he was shifted to Crocker-Anglo's Stockton branch in 1961, Mr. Leydecker resigned from that bank the next year and returned to San Rafael as president of the newly formed Redwood Bank. In 1963, at the age of 36, Mr.Leydecker was appointed by Gov. Pat Brown to succeed the late Walter R. Castro as the San Rafael representative on the Marin County Board of Supervisors.

In 1964, Mr. Leydecker won election to his supervisorial seat after a hard-fought campaign against San Rafael Mayor John F. McInnis.

As both a bank president and county supervisor, Mr. Leydecker was known as an efficient, intelligent manager who had little patience for those who could not keep up with him, and little hesitation in expressing his frustration.

"Often his sharp words offended those with soft skin," wrote Independent Journal columnist Rick Lyttle in 1966. "But just as often they served to prod things along much faster than the normal bureaucratic shuffle."

Mr. Leydecker served as chairman of the Board of Supervisors in 1966, but announced that year that he would not seek re-election to his seat. He was a member of the California delegation in support of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968, and supported Sen. Edward Kennedy's presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984, holding fundraisers for the candidate in his Tiburon home.

It was while fishing on the Trinity River in 1991 that Mr. Leydecker found himself stuck in mud created by the then-ongoing Trinity River Restoration Program. Angered by the incident, Mr. Leydecker obtained a cease-and-desist order against the program from the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and formed his own nonprofit organization, the Friends of the Trinity River, in 1992.

Thanks in part to Mr. Leydecker's efforts and influence, the group helped persuade Congress and various federal agencies to restore the river's historic flows. In January, Mr. Leydecker was honored for his efforts by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, the U.S. House of Representatives and the California Legislature. He was also named an honorary citizen of Trinity County.

Mr. Leydecker married Mary Elizabeth Kraft, a journalist who later became a reporter for the Marin Independent Journal, in 1951. The couple divorced in 1969, and Mrs. Leydecker died in 1999. Mr. Leydecker married Patricia A. Lombard in 1969 and adopted her two children. The couple divorced in 1983.

He was predeceased by his son David in 1985 and is survived by two sons, John Lydecker of San Rafael and Mark Lydecker of Aspen, Colo.; two daughters, Caroline (Lama Palden) Alioto of San Rafael and Criss Troast of Nantucket, Mass.; and eight grandchildren.

The family is planning a memorial service.

http://www.marinij.com/tiburonbelvedere/ci_18060573

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