The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and a lot of people had a lot of fun raising a lot of money for a good cause. The Rick Bell Memorial Golf Tournament, held recently at the Los Altos Golf and Country Club, left participants and organizers already looking forward to next year. This will be an annual event.
The event raised more than $25,000 for a memorial scholarship fund for Los Altos High School students.
The team of Tom Harrington and Dan Winters of Los Altos Hills, with Bill Nagle of Woodside and Geoff Wood of Pleasanton, came in first with a 48.9 scramble score.
Winters said, “We were inspired by Rick Bell. We were out here to do good and have fun, and that’s how he lived his life.”
Bell, who was active in the community and a trustee of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, was 56 when he drowned last December while trying to cross a flash-flooded Hawaiian stream.
Second place, with a score of 51.2, went to Gene Ashley, Dean Matsue, Joe Filizetti and John Lawrence playing for Silver Sponsor JIT Transportation. Representing Silver Sponsor Pam Blackman Intero Realty, the team of Mark Blackman, John Thompson, Dick Maestas and Brandt Roberts, with 52.3, came in a close third. In a scramble, team members play the best ball. Each player on a team hits, then all play from where the best ball landed. Scores are reduced by an average of the team members’ handicaps.
Tournament organizer Carol Millie of Los Altos, back from her Italian honeymoon with Jay Margulies, hit a 225-yard tee shot on the first hole for the longest drive among women. Millie represented Corporate Advisory Law Group. Bob Atkins, representing Platinum Sponsor Kelmoore Investment Company, won the men’s longest drive, 299 yards. Mike Sudas won the putting contest, and Jay Hocker was the best chipper.
The Episcopal Bishop of California, William S. Swing, honorary chairman of the event, won closest-to-the-pin by landing his tee shot seven inches from the pin on the 15th hole.
“The only thing missing was Rick Bell,” said Barton Lane.
Carol Winters of Los Altos Hills said, “The world should have more gentle souls like Rick, with an incredible sense of fairness and responsibility.”
The entire steering committee – which included Mona Armistead, Gene Ashley, Rich Fischer, Gunilla Follett, John Mason, Carol Millie, Marge Sentous, Steve Shepard, LeAnn Story, Rick Williams and Laurie Richard – worked for months to put on this event.
The $25,000 raised will be donated to the Richard G. Bell Memorial Scholarship Fund, a donor-advised fund within the Los Altos Community Foundation. The fund will award scholarships in Bell’s name to local students attending Los Altos High School.
In addition to entry fees, thousands of dollars were raised through the silent and live auctions. For example, Mario and Kathryn Gemello donated a bottle of 1968 Cabernet Savignon, that was said to have been made by Bell when he worked at the Gemello Winery while attending Los Altos High School. The $167 bottle sold at auction for $475.
One of the highlights of the evening was a performance by Los Altos High School’s Main Street Singers, who donated a holiday concert that was auctioned off for $550.
