Sonoma Mountain protector Pat Eliot dies at 87

Pat Eliot, who died Sunday, fought for trails, parkland and preservation of Sonoma Mountain.|

As a young girl in the 1940s, Pat Eliot spent a summer working for Charmian London at the old Jack London dude ranch, making beds and other chores for the privilege of riding horses on Sonoma Mountain.

It planted the seed for a love affair with the mountain that lasted a lifetime. For the first half of her adult life she traveled the world to exotic posts from Sri Lanka to Afghanistan with her diplomat husband Ted Eliot. But she always dreamed of getting back to the mountain of her youth. So when he retired from the foreign service in the 1980s the couple built a house on Sonoma Mountain. Pat devoted the next 30 years exploring it by foot and horseback and fighting to preserve it for the enjoyment of everyone.

She died Sunday at her Sonoma Mountain home surrounded by her husband and all four children. She was 87.

Her husband described her as both strong and courageous, and passionately driven to preserve the mountain.

“She was absolutely fearless and wouldn’t take no for an answer when she was fixed on a goal that she felt was for the betterment of land and people,” said Craig Anderson, executive director for LandPaths, which facilitates access to public lands in Sonoma County. Eliot had served on its board.

Eliot co-founded the Sonoma Mountain Preservation group in the 1990s, which pressed the county to set development restrictions to protect the 2,463-foot summit and 3,000 surrounding acres.

“When you look up to Sonoma Mountain today, you won’t see any houses. And this is in perpetuity. It can only be changed by a vote of the people of Sonoma County and that is very unlikely,” her husband Ted Eliot said.

“Having spent her life in embassies around the world, she had a real ability to be diplomatic enough to rough off the edges when she was trying to get something, and that was very obvious to the people who worked with her,” said Mickey Cooke, a fellow mountain activist and a friend for 65 years, ever since they were girls, riding on Mt. Tamalpais and on the London Ranch.

Eliot also was a key player in efforts that resulted in the addition of 600 acres to Jack London State Park. Last year she saw another dream realized - the opening of the East Slope Sonoma Mountain Ridge Trail, a loop that connects to a series of trails all they way to Jack London park.

While many property owners fight to keep the public away from their lands, the Eliots fought to open the mountain to all. They were major supporters of the Bay Area Ridge Trail on Sonoma Mountain, securing lands and easements with a goal of creating a 550-mile continuous loop that traces the ridgeline above San Francisco Bay; 367 acres have been opened so far.

Over the last two years Eliot served on the Sonoma Developmental Center Coalition, working to envision future pubic use of the 945-acre property once the facility closes at the end of 2018.

The Eliots were honored in 2014 for their support as the the non-profit Jack London Park Partners took over management of the park from the state.

“Her spirit, her compassion, her strength of will, were a real force here. She was one of those cheerleaders who supported us every step of the way,’ said Executive Director Tjiska Van Wyk.

Born Patricia Peters in Portland, Ore. in 1929, she moved with her family to Marin County when she was 7. She grew up in Kentfield and graduted from The Branson School in Ross. She met young Harvard student Ted Eliot while still a teenager and the couple married four years later in Sri Lanka, where Ted was stationed.

“Cupid fired his arrow at us both I think,” said Eliot.

She followed her husband for 30 years as he served in posts in Germany, the Soviet Union and Iran as well as a stint with the state department in Washington, D.C. Their last assignment was in Kabul after Ted Eliot was appointed ambassador to Afghanistan in the 1970s.

At the age of 40, Pat Eliot returned to school to finish both her bachelor’s and her master’s degrees in early childhood education at the University of Maryland. She did so while raising four children.

She also was a bird watcher and loved backpacking and horseback riding, serving on the Sonoma Developmental Center posse and on a mounted patrol for the Sonoma County Regional Parks.

A celebration of her life is planned for the spring, sometime in April.

In addition to her husband, Eliot is survived by her daughter Sally Schnitger, of Glendale; her son Ted Eliot III, of Belvedere; her daughter Wendy Eliot, of Sebastopol, and her son Peter Eliot, of Michigan.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 5210-5204.

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