NORTH COAST, Calif. – Patricia “Pat” Wiggins, who represented the North Coast in the state Legislature, has died.
Wiggins, 73, died early Thursday morning in Sonoma County after a long illness.
Wiggins' life included public service as a member of both the California State Assembly and California State Senate.
“Pat lived life to the fullest,” said Guy Conner, Wiggins' husband of 30 years. “As a parent, friend and public servant, Pat’s considerable talents and vivacious personality leave the people she touched far better off.”
Wiggins' successor in the state Senate, Sen. Noreen Evans, adjourned the Thursday morning Senate Floor Session in Wiggins' memory.
Evans remembered Wiggins as a very strong woman. “She was not only my former colleague on the Santa Rosa City Council; she was my friend, and my hero and really my older sister because everywhere Pat went, I seemed to follow.”
Wiggins worked to achieve significant local and statewide policy changes that reflected her love of the North Coast and its way of life, including adopting “smart growth” provisions in state planning and funding critical research on the phylloxera virus that devastated vineyards in the 1990s.
“Pat was a great friend and tremendous public servant. I've known her since before I started my career in public office,” said Congressman Mike Thompson. “She was with me in my earliest campaigns. I would not be where I am today if it wasn't for her guidance. Pat devoted her life to public service and to the idea that each of us has a responsibility to make our communities better places. Because of her work, Sonoma County has been left stronger for our kids and grandkids.”
A native Californian from Pasadena, she moved to Santa Rosa in 1984.
She was elected to the Santa Rosa City Council in 1994, serving thru 1998. In 1998, Wiggins won election to the State Assembly. She served three terms, left the Assembly in 2004, and was elected to the State Senate in 2006.
Wiggins retired from the Senate in 2010 after her term ended.
She put herself into the public spotlight despite developing a profound hearing deficit later in life, which required technologically advanced hearing aids to overcome.
Wiggins rarely spoke of her condition and never let it affect her work. While some doubted that a severely hearing-impaired person could even effectively campaign for office, her policy achievements while in office showed a determination and spirit that defined her public service record.
She leaves a legacy of cooperation and innovation, one that shows what communities can do when they pull together.
“We are enormously grateful for Pat’s tireless work on behalf of our community and wine industry issues,” said Linda Reiff, executive director of the Napa Valley Vintners. “Pat gained our respect and admiration because she was willing to step up and take on some pretty weighty topics when others were afraid to do the right thing. She was the first to say ‘yes’ to help us pass legislation that allowed us to tax our vineyards in order to build more housing for farmworkers. And, our Napa name protection law never would have been passed without her early and constant leadership.”
Wiggins actively nurtured the development of other people for public office. She played a key role in the election of literally scores of local and state elected officials from the North Coast, changing the landscape of local elected bodies toward a more progressive and publicly accountable frame of mind.
Wiggins was blessed to have a large group of close friends, many of whom came to visit and reminisce with her about their time together, both in and out of politics.
“Pat was always very dedicated to her work, but she did like to kick back and have fun,” said her longtime friend Marty Roberts. “We shared many wonderful trips to the coast and even drove across country one time with her husband Guy and my dog Molly. She had a wonderful laugh and a twinkle in her eye.”
Wiggins is survived by her husband, Guy; her two stepsons, Steve Silverman of Scottsdale, Ariz., and James Silverman of Owings Mills, Maryland; and her four grandchildren, Shane, Ava, Leah and Solana.
A celebration of her life will be held at the Friedman Center in Santa Rosa at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3.
Contributions in lieu of flowers can be made to the Sonoma Land Trust or to the Pat Wiggins Fund at Conservation Action Fund for Education.