Obituaries

David Cronin

David Cronin's strong work ethic and dependable nature carried him quickly through the ranks of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department, where he spent a 13-year-career.

"He really was the dream employee," said Capt. Linda Suvoy, assistant sheriff of the county's detention division.

Cronin, 37, died Nov. 26 of a gunshot wound to the head at the skateboard park at Youth Community Park on Fulton Road, said Sgt. Mitch Mana with the County Coroner's office. The death was being investigated by Santa Rosa Police as a suicide.

Cronin was born Nov. 1, 1971 and graduated from Piner High School in 1989. He joined the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department's as a correctional officer in August of 1995 and was promoted to sergeant in October of 2001 before making lieutenant late last year.

"Dave was a valued member of the sheriff's department and he will be greatly missed," Sheriff Bill Cogbill said.

In addition to his duties as daytime watch commander at the jail, Cronin served in specialty roles, including inmate classification, facility training officer and background investigator. He also was a member of the department's Special Emergency Response Team, an in-house SWAT operation, Suvoy said.

"He was consistently a solid performer," she said.

Capt. Dave Edmonds said Cronin's work record was "exemplary."

The Cronin family declined to comment.

Cronin is survived by his wife, Catherine Cronin, and his daughters, Courtney, 12, and Olivia, 1, all of Santa Rosa. He also is survived by his mother, Sue Cronin of Santa Rosa, and brother, Paul Cronin, who is coach of the Cardinal Newman High School football team.

A service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Santa Rosa Christian Church, 1315 Pacific Ave. Arrangements are being made by Lafferty and Smith Colonial Chapel.

-- Laura Norton

He has been called the most powerful person in Hollywood -- at least during Oscar season.

Otto Spoerri, who for more than two decades dispensed the tickets and seated the stars at the annual Academy Awards ceremony, died Saturday in Zurich, Switzerland, after suffering a stroke and contracting pneumonia, said an academy spokeswoman. He was 75.

The Swiss-born accountant served as controller for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1978 to 2002.

But every year since 1980, Spoerri had the additional task of being in charge of deciding the seating arrangements and distributing the tickets to the star-studded Oscar ceremony.

"He was, from the day I met him, the most easy-going guy with enormous responsibility that I had ever met," said movie producer Sid Ganis, president of the academy, who was on the board of governors during Spoerri's tenure.

Not only was Spoerri the academy's controller, Ganis said, but as "the keeper" of the highly sought-after tickets to the Oscar show, "everybody in Hollywood and way beyond was at his doorstep in trying to get him to give up some of his treasure."

Once dubbed "the ultimate arbiter of industry power" by the Wall Street Journal, the affable Spoerri considered the job "a major, major undertaking."

"It's up to us to make sure everybody is comfortable and nobody has anything to worry about," he said in a 2001 interview with the Record, a New Jersey newspaper and one of the many Oscar-curious news organizations that sought him out during awards season.

As for how the seating is broken down, Spoerri told the Los Angeles Times in 2002 that studios receive an allotment of tickets based on their nominations.

"Then," he said, "we have the nominees coming, and then we have the honored guests, who are a list of maybe 40 different people . . . from the governor to the mayor and police chief; and you have past presidents of the academy and certain obligations to some of the major contributors to the academy."

Each nominee, Spoerri explained to the Associated Press in 1999, is offered two tickets.

He was, however, willing to listen to pleas for more.

"Some nominees ask for extra seats for parents, grown-up kids, whatever it might be," he said. "If you can accommodate them, you do."

Although he admittedly was "pretty awed by the star power" when he took over the job, he said, "I have said 'no' to stars."

Noted Ganis: "If he knew you and he liked you, guess what? You sat two rows in front of where maybe you should have been sitting."

The job of seating Hollywood A-listers was not without potential pitfalls.

In the mid-'80s, Spoerri seated an actress known for her volatility too close to a top male actor, unaware that he had just dumped her.

"I figured out not to do that anymore," he said with a chuckle. "That was early on in my career. Now, I keep up with what's happening."

-- Los Angeles Times