JAMES A. GARAVENTA

Fighting fires around the North Coast was the highlight of James A.

Garaventa's life, he told his family.

Yet after that first career, fresh out of high school, his adventures

continued -- as a building inspector, as a computer buff who defied his age,

and as a widely traveled camper who excelled at ethnic cuisine and landscape

photography.

''My dad was a wonderful photographer,'' Chico resident Kathleen Altenburg,

the oldest of his children, recalled Sunday. ''He'd wait for hours for the

right sunlight. He was an artist.''

Garaventa died Wednesday at his home in Lucerne from lung disease. He was

78.

Garaventa was born Sept. 15, 1928, in Ukiah, where he graduated from Ukiah

High School before working four years for the California Department of

Forestry and Fire Prevention during the 1940s.

For a quarter century, he worked as an independent building inspector, and

for many years lived along the banks of the Russian River in Forestville.

An outdoorsman drawn to rustic places, he enjoyed the nearby beaches and

''would spend hours making sand castles out there,'' daughter Barbra Penaflor

of San Rafael said. ''He was a bit of a hippie.''

Married and divorced four times, Garaventa spent some years in Marin

County, too, working for the county and for Fairfield Semiconductor in a key

technical support role.

''He was really into computers way before most people his age were into

computers,'' Penaflor recalled.

His painting hobby was soon eclipsed by digital photography, a passion he

continued while traveling in his motorhome to the 48 contiguous states during

retirement.

When asked why he didn't venture overseas, ''he always said, 'Why go

elsewhere, when there's so much of interest here?''' Altenburg remembered.

A gardener who grew standout tomatoes, he also experimented widely in the

kitchen with Moroccan, Thai and Italian dishes.

Along with his daughters in Chico and San Rafael, Garaventa is survived by

daughters Annette Whedon of Ukiah and Cindy Cervante of Novato, and sons James

M. Garaventa of Ukiah and Daniel A. Garaventa of Arizona. He also leaves seven

grandchildren.

A graveside service will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Ukiah Cemetery. The

family suggests contributions to the American Cancer Society.

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