Corralitos

Robert (Bob) Mountjoy passed away peacefully on September 11 in Corralitos in his son’s back yard surrounded by family. Bob lived a long healthy life, 70 years of it with his wife Janet at his side. He missed her deeply since her passing 18 months ago, and looked forward to being reunited with her. He was an active member of the Dominican Oaks independent living community until he was diagnosed with brain cancer one month before his death.

Born in Denver Colorado, Bob acquired a love of the mountains through summer work surveying and clearing trails on public lands in the Rockies. He earned a degree in architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and moved to California to continue his studies at UC Berkeley. He soon met Janet Hellman in his classes and they discovered their shared love of classical music and the outdoors. They married in 1952 and moved together to Adak, Alaska where Bob was assigned as Lieutenant JG in the Navy to maintain a remote communications base at the end of the Korean War.

They settled in Mill Valley when Bob started his career as an architect in San Francisco. They designed and built an A-frame home, raised two sons, Daniel and Alan, and Bob served on the Planning Commission and contributed designs for public school and park projects. The highlight of his career as partner in ROMA was the design of the Domain Chandon winery in Yountville but his legacy lives on in many other buildings throughout the SF Bay Area.

Bob retired early at 55 and moved ‘back to the land’ to begin a new life in Hayfork, California on a 40 acre parcel where he and Jan, with the help of their sons and their friends built a home and garden. He became a vital and valued member of the community through voluntary actions to develop and maintain the downtown Hayfork landscape project and serve as the Chair of the Watershed Research and Training Center. At the age of 90 when Bob and Jan could no longer maintain a remote rural property, they donated their home and land to the Center to support ongoing land stewardship of the region they had adopted, and moved to Santa Cruz to be close to their son Daniel and daughter in law Anne Hayes.

Bob lived a good life, full of music, home grown food, great wine, sleeping outdoors in the summer, canoeing and hiking in the mountains, and travelling to be with his 2 sons’ families, 2 grandchildren (Ashlin and Gabriel) and 2 great granddaughters (Lyra and Olivia). Bob is remembered as a kind and caring man, whose sparkling blue eyes, quick wit, warm smile, and humble attitude made us all feel at ease in his presence.