Dick Waldo believes in himself.
He ran the Boston Marathon, married three times, and served as Danville’s mayor in his 70s. He is now retired and mopes around his home, wondering what to do.
Bored, bored, bored, he says. Reading, traveling and playing with his dog Taz are how he spends his days.
“I shouldn’t have quit,” said Waldo, 81, about being mayor. “I found being on the Town Council the greatest job in my life.”
“He tells me that, too,” said his wife, Kathy, about him being bored. “He’s 81. I don’t know what he expects at this age.”
He chose not to run again in 2000 because of health problems.
“I didn’t want to be a professional council member,” he said.
Waldo, who served Danville as a councilman and mayor for two terms in the 1990s, is one of the most popular and respected figures in Danville, according to Town Manager Joe Calabrigo and Beverly Lane, curator for the San Ramon Valley Museum.
Waldo served from Dec. 7, 1993, to Dec. 3, 2002.
“He was a wonderful public servant while he was on the council,” Lane said. “He’d tell you what he thought.”
“He represented our support for open space and the environment,” she added. “I always appreciated that.”
Former County Supervisor and council member Millie Greenberg echoed Lane’s sentiments about Waldo.
“Dick loved being a council member and a mayor,” Greenberg said. “He brought wonderful enthusiasm and a well-reasoned viewpoint. He worked very hard. He is engaging, interesting and energetic.”
Waldo grew up in North Dakota and left when he was 18. He said he enjoyed the state’s weather and environment. North Dakota was full of people from Norway and Germany.
“I thought it was the better part of the world,” he said. “It’s colder than hell in the winter time.”
He also mentioned that the prominent western fiction writer Louis L’Amour was his uncle, also from North Dakota, and he had a close bond with him as well.
Waldo’s mother also wrote about the history of North Dakota. She produced a book about leadership for clubs, too.
“I never read the book,” Waldo said. “I never wanted to.”
After leaving North Dakota, Waldo became a U.S. Navy medic during World War II on Treasure Island and gave pharmaceutical care to soldiers.
“It was a great job,” he said.
When he was discharged, he decided to stay in California.
“Once you get to California, where else would you want to go?” he asked. “It’s the greatest place in the world. The hills, the vistas. The people are different.”
In the Golden State, he fell in love with a woman who was also in the Navy.
“I met my first wife in the Navy,” he said.
He followed her to Stanford University where he earned a degree in history in the late 1940s, receiving free tuition from the G.I. Bill, he said. He and his first wife had two children. He got a job at Pacific Bell and worked there for 35 years.
However, he said he and his wife proved to be incompatible, he fell out of love with her, and they divorced.
After leaving her, he married for a second time. But he divorced her, too.
“No. 2 isn’t even worth talking about,” he said. “I fell out of love I guess. It was a long time ago.”
Finally though, he found a lasting relationship with his third wife, Kathy, meeting her when he was 61. She is 20 years younger, he said.
“She’s the greatest person in my life,” he said. He said his third marriage is working because they are responsive to each other and take care of one another.
In the early 1980s, Waldo ran 72 miles at Lake Tahoe, which took him 14 hours. He also ran the Boston Marathon in 1977. But his extensive running took a toll on his knees, which he had to have replaced with titanium, his wife said.
When he reached his late 60s, he wanted another challenge and decided that he would run for Town Council. His son Stephen Waldo was mayor of Brisbane.
“I woke up one day, and I was 69 years old,” Dick Waldo said.
When he became a councilman and mayor, he said he enjoyed listening to residents’ concerns, and working with former councilwoman and county Supervisor Millie Greenberg, as well as Town Manager Calabrigo.
“He’s the best person I ever worked with in my life,” Waldo said about Calabrigo.
Waldo served two terms and when his second expired, he decided not to run again.
“I was getting too old,” he said.
He said he is a Democrat and enjoyed meeting Sen. Hillary Clinton, adding that he would vote for her if she runs for president.
But though he has aged, he still feels energetic. He reads a lot, especially history, and has an extensive Civil War book collection.
“I’m pretty young for 81,” Waldo said.
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