Hank and Cathie Sandbach

(1938-2026)

Born months apart and passing peacefully at home within 6 weeks of each other, Hank and Cathie Sandbach shared a remarkable 65 years together. Hank and Cathie first met at the King Cotton Drive-In in San Rafael through mutual friends. It was December of 1956, and Hank and Cathie were both home from college. Cathie had grown up in Kentfield, the daughter of Jane (née Crosby) and James A. Orr. Her parents were fun, the type to throw a neighborhood cocktail party for the wedding of stuffed animals belonging to Cathie and her younger sister Laurie. Their mother was famously quick with a quip, and their father, among his many professions and pursuits, raced sports cars. He taught Cathie to drive when she was 12, certainly contributing to her adventurous spirit. Cathie graduated from Bishop’s School in La Jolla and had just started at Colorado College when she met Hank.

Hank was the son of Alice Jean (née Fisher) and George E. Antony Sandbach who'd met on a steamship in the Mediterranean. Hank's father Tony was from England and worked aboard the ship as a radio officer, and Alice Jean was travelling after graduating college at Cal Berkeley. Hank was born in San Francisco, and in 1944, the family moved to a home on an idyllic 28 acres in the then-country town of Novato with no street address at the time. His father Tony worked at C&H Sugar while Hank and his two brothers Bill and Mike helped their mother take care of the family's increasing assemblage of cows, chickens, and sheep. The boys baled hay in the summers. Hank went to St. Vincent's grammar school in Petaluma and graduated from Marin Catholic High School.

When Hank and Cathie met, Hank was a freshman at the University of San Francisco (USF) where he sang with the USF Pipes. The Pipes were an a capella group who recorded several albums, socialized and caroused together, and whose members and their spouses were to remain the couple's lifelong friends. Hank would spend his junior year at Georgetown University, singing with the Chimes. Cathie left Colorado to work in San Francisco after a year. After dating for some time, and over cocktails (Fog Cutters) at Trader Vic's, Hank proposed, and the couple were married on December 23, 1961 in the Presidio at the Chapel of Our Lady. Fifty years later to the day, they would return to the same altar with their extended family and champagne.

Hank joined the Army after graduating from USF, and the newlyweds moved to Fort Bragg, North Carolina where Hank was assigned to the 3rd US Army Missile Command and became platoon leader of the 1st Platoon, C Company, 32nd Infantry. Their first daughter Alyce was born in 1963. These were sometimes anxious times for the couple, as the country navigated the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of President Kennedy. In 1964, Hank was transferred to Augsburg, Germany where he served as Public Information Officer for the 24th Infantry Division. Cathie and Hank's second daughter Anne was born in Augsburg in 1964. In 1965, the family returned to the Bay Area when Hank was released from active duty, though he was to remain in the Army Reserves, attaining the rank of colonel in 1984 and receiving the Legion of Merit, the US Army's highest peacetime medal for officers, in 1991.

Upon returning to the states in 1965, the couple and their two young daughters settled in Novato, not far from Hank’s parents who remained in the house where he grew up. Following his mother’s death in 1968, the family moved into Hank's childhood home in Novato. Hank joined Del Monte Corporation in 1966 where he began his 35-year career in public relations. Their third daughter Janet was born in 1970. As they raised their children, Hank advanced at Del Monte from staff writer of the company publication to Manager of Public Relations. Cathie worked in childcare and earned a degree in Psychology from Sonoma State University (receiving her diploma in the mail, under "circumstances without pomp" as she put it). Cathie also volunteered for the American Cancer Society, Petaluma Hospice, and the Novato Human Needs Center’s suicide hotline. In 1985, when Del Monte's parent company, RJ Reynolds, purchased Nabisco and merged its food operations, Hank and Cathie moved to Morristown, New Jersey, where Hank worked for 15 years as Vice President of Public Relations for Nabisco. The couple immersed themselves in new friendships, theatre, music, and local community affairs back east. Their family and friends often visited. When Hank retired in 2001, the couple moved to Sonoma, California. They travelled the world, spent time with family, enjoyed old friends, and made new ones. A joy for both was the purchase and restoration of the house in Red Bluff where Hank’s mother grew up. They continued to volunteer their time, Hank at his alma mater USF and Giant Steps Therapeutic Equestrian Center and Cathie as an ombudsman for Senior Advocacy Services and as Volunteer Coordinator for the Sonoma Historic Parks.

Hank and Cathie were generous, curious, loving, inventive, enthusiastic people, who modeled kindness and decency for their children and extended family. They made and kept so many incredible relationships over the course of their lives together. We will treasure the love and fun and richness they each brought to our lives.

Hank and Cathie leave behind their daughters Alyce, Anne (Todd Stevenot), and Janet; their grandchildren Melanie, Carson, Myrna, Lucy, Reed, Elsa, Jake, Henry, Leon, Grace, and June; their great-grandchildren Hudson, Elias, Enzo, Callie, Ellis, Tatum, and Yvie; Cathie's sister Laurie; and nieces and nephews Lizanne, Alison, Matt, Susan, Shelly, CJ, and Catharine. The couple were predeceased by Hank's beloved brothers Bill and Mike and their dearly loved niece Robin. A joint service will be held for the couple on September 19, 2026, at 10:30 at St. Francis Solano Catholic Church at 469 3rd Street West in Sonoma.

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