Bob Goligoski

Life well lived from 1940 to 2021

Robert J. Goligoski of Sunnyvale, California by way of St. Paul, Minnesota and the Treasure State of Montana passed away on May 4, 2021. He was born on May 26th in the year 1940 to Frank and Anne Goligoski in Havre, Montana.

He attended Havre Central High School and then so many colleges nobody really knew where he graduated from. He eventually received a Master of Arts Degree in Journalism at the University of Montana in Missoula.

After achieving his master’s in journalism, he followed his passion for writing to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where he would begin a forty-year career covering healthcare, technology, and his favorite sport, skiing. In 1976 he and his first wife, Cobe Chatwood, decided to head west with their two sons, Bryan and Cory, as he took a job in the bucolic fruit orchards of Santa Clara, California and began writing for the San Jose Mercury News.

While at the “Merc” he would meet many lifelong friends while establishing himself as a talented journalist who would be nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his groundbreaking work on the quality of care challenges at Kaiser Permanente. When the union busting management of Knight Ridder sent him to cover the police blotter in Modesto, he decided he had seen enough, it was time to move on to greener pastures.

His writing skills would then take him to the heart of Silicon Valley where he would work for several semiconductor and data storage companies, settling in at SanDisk for the remainder of his successful career.

In 1986 he would meet his second wife, Ellaraine Lockie, and the two would form a lifelong partnership. Their trips to the wine county, endless dinners with friends, and travel abroad would fill volumes of memories. Her girls from her first marriage, Shawn and Heather, found in him a second father, and he, two daughters.

Upon his retirement, Bob spent his life with his six grandsons at every sporting event known to man, on any golf course with a first tee, and in the quiet embrace of the long, gorgeous reach of California. The mountains were his winter home. The Palisades of Squaw Valley and the ridges of Kachina Peak at Taos will forever tell his tales.

A gathering with speeches by friends, the toasting of Bob with fine fermented grape, as well as the embrace of his sweet love and gentle kindness is planned for May 21st. In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family asks that you either make a donation to Ridge Winery, and then drink the donation, or to the High Five Foundation of Truckee, California.

Bob is survived by his wife Ellaraine Lockie, his two sons, Cory and Bryan. His two stepdaughters Shawn and Heather. And also, by his grandsons who were the foundation of his later life: R.J., Jake, William, Max, Sam, and Jack. He is also survived by his two sisters, Eleanor and Barbara. Preceding him in his passing are his brother Don his father Frank and mother Anne Goligoski.

He is further celebrated by Erin Crockwell Goligoski, Bryan’s first wife, and Jennifer Markham, his fiancée, as well as Clay Chaplin, Heather’s partner. Cobe Chatwood, Bob’s first wife, also celebrates him.

Others, who were as close to being family as family gets, are Sue Rubey, Chris Temple, The Masons: John, Karen, Caley, and Cara. Bert and Andrea Niehaus remained close to his heart, as did his lifelong friend Mike Seither, and the rest of his golfing buddies; Jim Treat, Elliot Lee, and Bob DeKracker.

He is also celebrated by his colleagues at SanDisk; Tanya Chuang, Kevin Conley, Nelson Chan, Ed Cuellar, & Leon and Patricia Malmed. His fellow journalists at The Mercury News; Cathy Castillo and the late Charlie Bricker, The members of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association as well as Chaco Mohler and Ken Castle.

He joins Michelle Reid and his close friends Commander Bill Rubey and Elias Castillo in the next life, along with KGO radio’s resident bon vivant, John Hamilton. He also re-unites with sometimes ski, sometimes drinking, buddies Bill Johnson and Steve McKinney. We hope the margaritas he enjoyed with Bill Walsh taste as good in the afterlife as they did down here.

For inquiries into his life, or for a copy of his modestly well selling book, “The Good Life According to Bob”, please contact his son Bryan at bryangoligoski@gmail.com.

Godspeed, you were a fine man.