Longtime Sonoma resident, teacher and all-around bon vivant Will Penna died Jan. 21 of apparent heart failure. He was 84.
Family and friends remembered him as a whip-smart man who lived life to its fullest.
“He was just wild,” recalled longtime friend Ed Allen. “A deep thinker and high-flier.”
Will Penna was born Oct. 20, 1937 in San Francisco. His father was a grocer and his mother worked for relatives of the Gump family, renowned for their iconic Gump’s home décor store in Union Square. The family moved to Marin County when Will was young and he grew up in Larkspur, attending St. Raphael School in San Rafael and graduating from Marin Catholic High School in 1955.
His older sister, Rosemary Uren, remembered him as a shy boy during childhood – a stark contrast to the raconteur he’d grow into.
“The kids used to tease him in school because he wore glasses,” said Rosemary. “I was sort of the big-sister protector of him.” She said they remained “pretty close” throughout their adulthoods.
Will earned a degree in horticulture from Cal Poly before going on to receive his teaching credential from San Francisco State University.
Penna taught English in Elk Grove and Chowchilla before landing a long-term position teaching and serving as head of the English department at Santa Cruz High School, according to his family.
He retired in the late 1990s, earlier than many of his teaching peers, said Rosemary. “For the second half of his life he wanted to lead a life of adventure,” she said.
He moved to Sonoma in 2005 to be close to Rosemary, who’d moved to town the year before.
Ed Allen describes himself as one of Will’s oldest and closest friends. The two met as English teachers in the 1980s and said Will was “the ultimate wordsmith.”
“He knew the meaning and the etymology of just about any word you could throw at him - where it came from, the derivation,” said Allen. “He was ahead of his time, always on the forefront of pop culture – an amazing man.”
Added Allen: “He was always on the cutting edge of things.”
Will prided himself as being of three generations, said Allen: the Beat generation of the 1950s, the hippy generation of the ‘60s and the raver generation of the ‘90s.
“He really was a very accomplished entheogenist,” said Allen, adding that Will had traveled to South America and Mexico to study and take part in shamanic rituals. “That was a huge part of his life.”
In his later years, Will would “hold court at the Swiss,” according to Rosemary, referring to her brother’s fondness for the Swiss Hotel bar and restaurant on Spain Street.
Allen named the Swiss and El Dorado Kitchen as Will’s favorite watering holes, where he’d frequently be seen in the companionship of his little dog Jaspar. “Until Jaspar (relieved himself) on the floor of the El Dorado and he was banned from there,” recalled Allen.
He loved eating out, said his friend. Every day at 11:45 a.m. “on the dot,” Will would call Allen from a Sonoma restaurant and get his advice on what food and drink to order.
“He was very much an aficionado of drinks,” said Allen. “An aficionado of a lot of things.”
When friend Lon Goddard broke the news of Will’s death on Facebook, several former students spoke in admiration of “Mr. Penna.”
“Such a cool teacher,” said Barbara Nelson Burke.
“A great English teacher,” wrote Marquita Weatherwax Peterson.
“Mr. Penna was one of the best,” added Robert Bates.
“A wonderful teacher and man,” said Carl Jones.
Younger brother Paul Penna posted that Will had “drifted away peacefully” last Friday, “off to his next great adventure.”
“He and his canine companion Jaspar are now together,” wrote Paul, “somewhere over the rainbow.”
Will Penna is survived by his sister Rosemary Uren, brother Paul Penna, niece Mary Bennett and nephews James Uren and David Uren. No service is currently planned, due to the pandemic.
Email Jason Walsh at Jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.
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