November
2002
In Memoriam:
Ralph Appezzato
MTC staff and commissioners are mourning the passing in September of Commissioner Ralph
Appezzato, age 67, who had been battling prostate cancer. The mayor for the East Bay city
of Alameda, Appezzato had represented the cities of Alameda County on the Commission since
1998.
“We have lost a true champion of regionalism and consensus-building,” said MTC
Executive Director Steve Heminger.
As part of his MTC duties, Appezzato chaired the Oversight Committee of the Bay Area Toll
Authority and co-chaired the policy committee overseeing the just-completed Bay Crossings
Study.
Appezzato spent 10 years at Alameda’s City Hall, the first two as a city council
member, the last eight as mayor. One of the major milestones of his tenure was the
successful conversion of the Alameda Naval Air Station to civilian use. He strongly
advocated incorporating affordable housing into the site.
While deeply involved in Alameda’s day-to-day life — rarely missing a civic
gathering — Appezzato also served on a number of county and regional panels. Besides
MTC, he also sat on the San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Author- ity, the Bay
Conservation and De-velopment Commission, the East Bay Conversion and Reinvestment
Commission, the Alameda County Waste Management Authority, the Alameda County Congestion
Management Agency and the Alameda County Airport Land Use Commission. He also sat on the
board of directors of a number of nonprofit groups.
Some 1,500 mourners attended Appezzato’s memorial service. His popularity and
leadership sparked a laudatory editorial the day after his death in the San Francisco
Chronicle, which noted “his dignified presence at public events” and called him
“an upbeat, forward-looking force in a city that has a tendency to resist
change.”
A retired Marine colonel who served in Vietnam and former bank executive, Appezzato is
survived by his wife of 34 years, Marilyn, and three adult sons: David, Jason and Joshua.
Contents
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2002 Transportation Awards
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In Memoriam
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