John Schubert, Sonoma County historian and court bailiff, dies at 83
As a kid, John Schubert found that he loved the Guerneville area more than any other. He grew up to become a fountain of lower Russian River history, and to go to work each day with a local artifact pinned to his shirt.
The easygoing, studious and perpetually intrigued Schubert was for almost 40 years a Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputy assigned primarily to courtroom security. He was proud of the vintage and rare badge that proclaimed him: Bailiff.
“Schubert was the only person I ever saw with one,” Sheriff Mark Essick said.
Schubert, who in addition to his law enforcement career served in the Marine Corps Reserve, died June 6. He was 83.
“He ended up being the go-to guy for history of the Russian River area,” said friend and colleague Gaye LeBaron, the Sonoma County history writer and retired Press Democrat columnist.
LeBaron added, “John was also extremely personable, and just great fun. What a gift he’s been to the region.”
A resident of Guerneville for 67 years, Schubert authored five books of local history. For decades he also shared tales of Russian River history in columns published in The Paper and the Sebastopol Times & News.
The Sonoma State University alumnus was dealing with advancing cancer when, just last year, he donated to the SSU library his massive collection of lower Russian River memorabilia and artifacts.
“He started collecting even before he knew quite why,” LeBaron said.
Among them: stacks of old postcards, photographs, posters, flyers, matchbook covers, menus, news clippings, tickets, playbills, ledgers, invoices, receipts, brochures, journals, manuscripts, court documents, letters, albums, stock certificates, books, maps, postmarked envelopes, scrapbooks, family histories and bumper stickers, you name it.
Sources of the collectibles included the annual Bohemian Club encampment in Monte Rio, Rio Nido big-band music venues, the railroads that hauled timber and tourists, the Slug Fest, the Quicksilver Mine, Stumptown Daze parades, Russian River Rodeo, Monte Rio Water Carnival, the Russian Chapel at Fort Ross and the various Russian River floods.
Schubert’s collection came to the college library in 88 boxes that when lined up ran for 53 feet. Lynn Prime, SSU’s special collections librarian, said the collection is a treasure trove that will appeal to students and others interested in myriad aspects of life in the region.
Schubert, Prime said, “never did anything in half measures.”
“He was such a Renaissance guy,” she said. “And it shows in his collection.”
The library’s John Schubert Russian River Collections is open to the public by appointment.
Historian and retired Sonoma County History and Genealogy Library staffer Katherine Rinehart counts herself fortunate to have witnessed Schubert as he conducted in-depth research, and to have helped him organize and process the collection in preparation for donation to SSU.
“There’s no better way to get to know a person,” she said, “than to go through everything he collected since 1959.”
Energetic and eager for opportunities to make history come alive, Schubert constructed in the backyard of his and longtime partner Sarah Brooks’ home in Guerneville a replica of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, complete with a station and working signals.
“His fascination with history was something else,” said Doug Broberg of Guerneville, a friend and fellow history buff and retired deputy sheriff.
One of Broberg’s favorite pieces of John Schubert trivia: “He had a casket he kept in his house.”
Schubert used the coffin decades ago as a prop for an elaborate Halloween party and afterward simply kept it standing upright against the wall in his living room.
Beyond his lifetime of studying, collecting and sharing Russian River history, Schubert worked to save what he could of it. He played important roles in the conservation efforts that preserved the historic, downtown Guerneville bridge — built in 1922 — and the 1885 Marshall House that now graces the Russian River Senior Center.
Schubert would often don a top hat and tails, then entertain and enlighten visitors to the pioneer section of Guerneville’s Redwood Memorial Gardens cemetery. He was for decades a pillar of the Russian River Historical Society, which he co-founded, and other organizations that celebrate, share and preserve history.
For all that did for his community, Schubert was awarded a Spirit of Sonoma Award just last May. And in March the Sonoma County Historical Society presented him its Jeanne Thurlow Miller Award in recognition of his lifetime of historical work.
John C. Schubert was born Aug. 9, 1938 in San Francisco. From an early age, he spent summers on land at the Russian River’s Guernewood Park that a grandfather had owned since 1914.
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