By Khalida Sarwari
The world may remember Vince Garrod as a prominent member of the Saratoga community, but for his daughter, Christina Cagliostro, he was also a man of wisdom. That’s what she will miss the most about him. Garrod, 94, died on Dec. 30.
Along with other members of his family, Garrod operated the Garrod Farms, a wine and horse ranch in Saratoga’s hills that the family owned since the early 1890s. Vince Garrod spent his life on the farm, said Cagliostro, 50.
Days after his passing, Cagliostro said she would miss hearing the “tidbits of wisdom” her father would impart to her, such as, “An opinion is an opinion and it isn’t worth much,” and “You always need to put yourself in the other person’s shoes to see things from their point of view.”
Garrod, who served 26 years on the Saratoga Union School District board of trustees, was also an influence behind Cagliostro’s decision to become a schoolteacher. She teaches Spanish, theater arts and language arts at Hyde Middle School in Cupertino.
“He instilled in me a love of education,” she said. “My father was always so proud that the United States is the only country in the world where everyone had a right to a good, free education, and he stood by that.”
He was “a wonderful father and grandfather,” she said.
Beyond that, Cagliostro, who lives on the family farm, wants the world to know her father as a “lover of the land.” Garrod hosted functions, parties and events for scout groups and historical society clubs on the farm. In the 1980s, the Garrod family sold 120 acres of their 240-acre ranch to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District to be used as a place for such activities as hiking and biking.
“It was very important to him to share this fantastic place,” she said. “I think it’s a huge gift he gave to the valley, and I know that he is so pleased to see people up there and enjoying the land like he did.”
Garrod spent much of his time on the land running a horse livery business that he started in the 1960s, boarding horses and offering riding lessons. Prior to that, the ranch focused on apricot and prune farming for about 50 years. Today, Cagliostro lives on the family farm along with her siblings, Jan, Vicky and Emma, who help run the operations, including a winery that their father began. Her brother Tim runs a part of the family property in Doyle, and another brother, Peter, lives in Hawaii, where he is a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in agricultural economics.
Garrod was surrounded by his family when he died, said Cagliostro. The clan spent Christmas Eve and Christmas together. They moved Garrod’s bed to the living room near the Christmas tree, and everyone took turns sitting next to him throughout the day, she said.
Garrod is survived by his wife of 71 years, Jane, six children, 14 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held Jan. 13 at 2 p.m. at the Saratoga Federated Church, 20390 Park Place, followed by a reception at the Joan Pisani Community Center, 19655 Allendale Ave.
