Jon Randolph Eichelberger
77-years-old
Martinez resident
Our father, Jon Randolph Eichelberger, passed away on the morning of October 26th, 2024 at the age of 77. He had been diagnosed with a terminal brain cancer less than a month before.
Jon was born in Berkeley, CA to Marilyn Eichelberger (Fox) and George Eichelberger and is a fifth generation Californian. He is survived by his daughters, Erika Eichelberger, Annaliese VerMerris, and Molly Padilla; his sisters Lise Edwards and Mimi Oules; and his grandchildren Genoveva Padilla (12), Joaquin Padilla (10), and Lilah VerMerris (2).
Jon was raised in Lafayette and attended Springhill Elementary and Acalanes High School. Growing up he loved tennis, skiing, model airplanes, marksmanship, American history, The Beach Boys, and cars. In high school he rebuilt a VW engine. He loved spending summers in Calaveras County with his grandmother’s Italian family working in the park service, riding horses, and listening to his aunt’s stories about the old times.
After high school, Jon became a tennis instructor and assistant pro at the Orinda Country Club. During his college years at CSU Hayward, he also worked as a ski instructor in Aspen. Jon met his wife, our mother, Joyce Gaston, while skiing. They married in 1970 and spent ten years adventuring before having children. They skied in Aspen together and worked in Washington, DC where they made a close knit family of friends and built a house together. Their daughter Erika was born while they were living back east but they soon moved back to California and settled in Martinez where Annaliese and Molly were born.
Jon ran his own business, Acorn Construction, for many years and eventually became a self-employed commercial plumber. After Jon and Joyce divorced in 1993, his self-determined schedule allowed him to remain active in his kids’ lives. Jon never remarried but maintained a full life through political activism, the Sonoma County Soaring Club, friends at Kimberly’s coffee shop in Pleasant Hill, skiing with his kids and grandkids, and working on his 1959 Porsche. He was obsessed with politics and history and was a forever learner.
Jon retired from plumbing in 2008, but all the way up until his brain tumor diagnosis at the end of September he worked every day remodeling his house and building an addition. He remained a devoted father, grandfather, and neighbor, always offering bits of wisdom, history lessons, and gifts.
Jon’s last month was spent surrounded by family at UCSF Hospital and at Coming Home Hospice in San Francisco.
We will remember our father as a man with a wacky sense of humor who knew how to “keep smiling” despite all of life’s setbacks. We will remember him as a people person who wanted to know the life story of every stranger he met, and a rebel devoted to personal freedom and doing things his own way. Most importantly, we will remember our dad as someone with a great capacity for personal transformation over a lifetime—a sensitive soul who studied his mistakes, learned and grew, and developed the ability to practice unconditional love.
