Celebration of Life for Robert "Bud" Nielsen to be Held at Heritage Park

The patriarch of a prominent heritage family of Dublin that spans 6 generations, Robert Nielsen, passed peacefully on July 26, 2013.  He was Dublin’s longest resident and the last remaining citizen in the line of heritage families instrumental in the founding of the City of Dublin,  pre its’ Incorporation.  He was 86 years old.  

Known to everyone as Bud, he was born to Anna Matilda Carstensen and Thomas Martin Nielsen in 1926 at home on the family ranch.  Both his maternal and paternal grandparents emigrated from Denmark and settled in Dublin in the 1870’s.  Bud had one sibling, his older brother Harold, who predeceased him.

Bud attended Murray School in Dublin and Amador High School in Pleasanton.  He was recruited by St. Mary’s College to play football, but with his brother, Harold, away at war, he was needed to run the family ranch. At the age of 25, Bud met a beautiful young woman from Minnesota who was spending the summer  in Dublin with her sister, whose husband was stationed during the Korean War, at Camp Shoemaker, known today as Camp Parks. Marilyn Ann Fenne became his wife, business partner, and constant companion for the 43 years they shared until her death in 1994 from cancer.

Together he and his father raised sheep and some cattle, planted fields of tomatoes on the land where the Silvergate housing development now stands, and grew hay and grain in Dougherty Valley.  Bud made the transition to raising solely cattle under the name TN Cattle Company. TN, his father’s brand, was one of the earliest brands registered in the State of California. The cattle in the City of Dublin’s murals bear  TN  the  family’s brand.  

As suburban development encroached on the home ranch, it was becoming more difficult to be viable locally in agriculture.  Bud  began leasing  grazing land throughout the Valley and Northern California  to accommodate a growing herd.   He obtained his pilot’s license at age 36, and at age 38 expanded his business by leasing land in Klamath Falls, Oregon and commuted by airplane, running ranches 400 miles apart.

As Dublin grew, Bud was a dedicated civic leader and community servant.  In 1957 he was one of the founders of the Dublin Community Club, Dublin’s first civic body.  Along with the other founding members, he invited all new resident s to become active in ensuring that all new development in the area would benefit the entire Valley.  The organization floated a Zone 7 Water Conservation and Flood Bond as well as a huge Alameda County School Bond enabling the Board of Trustees to purchase land for seven elementary schools to serve the influx of children from future development.  For twelve years he served on the Murray School Board.  Nielsen School was named in his honor of these efforts and to reflect the family’s standing as one of the original pioneers of the area.

Bud served as part of the volunteer Fire Department, was in the Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Reserve, Director of the Dublin Pioneer Cemetery and Rowell Ranch Rodeo.  He participated in the Soil Conservation Board, served as an officer of the Farm Bureau, the Wool Growers Association, Cattlemen’s Association, and was a member of the Elks and a 4-H supporter.  He was invited to be a member of the San Francisco Commonwealth Club, and in 1988 was honored as Alameda/Contra Costa County Cattleman of the Year.  

In 1986, Bud was in a near-fatal truck accident on the ranch, but returned home after a month in the hospital and made a remarkable recovery.  This accident left him with nerve damage to his foot that caused him many years later to fall and break the same hip four different times, finally resulting in his immobility.

The day came when the home ranch land was destined to become houses. One of Bud’s most challenging accomplishments was his dedicated effort over 10 years to take his family’s ranch land through the stages from zoned agriculture to a marketable housing development.  Right in the middle of that effort, the City of Dublin incorporated and he had to restart the process.  In 2001, a citizen initiative forged by his neighbors down-zoned the remaining land in the West Dublin Hills, which is surrounded by development and now has no agricultural value, to serve as open space for the current residents.  To someone who had worked tirelessly from its inception to make the City of Dublin a wonderful place to live, this was a difficult blow.

Bud gave his children memories few children will ever know.  In a close-knit rural community, they grew up with a father who expected hard work but at the same time played “dogpile” with them, made up songs while he took them riding on horseback during his work day, taught them history, and tucked them into bed every night. He loved to throw a party, and made many lifelong friends to whom he was devoted and had that devotion returned. He had a signature twinkle in his eye,  full of spunk and playful, laughing easily and joking readily.  He loved to have fun.  He was a mountain of a man physically, but inwardly sentimental and soft-hearted.  

Bud’s three sons have all worked to further the TN ranching operation and continue the family’s deeply valued agricultural heritage.  During his lifetime, they have done business in nearly every Western state, and TN Cattle Company now runs thousands of acres of lease holdings and owns ranches in Siskiyou, Tehama, and Glenn counties.  His grandsons, as well, continue to be a part of the ranching community, participating in rodeos and lending help in the daily functioning of their family’s ranching business.  Bud’s daughter, Roxanne, works  as a dental hygienist while helping her father with his business matters, and  caring for her father in his later years.  

Bud is survived by his four children, Roxanne, Tom, Robert, and Jeff.  Roxanne’s husband Jack Gilbert and Jeff’s wife Tammy, like-son Gary and his wife Ruth, and brother-in-law, Andrew Fenne.  

He is also survived by 10 grandchildren who loved him very dearly.  Eight grandsons: Tom’s boys,  Tom Jr., Travis, Timothy and his wife Elizabeth of Siskiyou County, CA.  Robert’s boys:   Tyler, Ryan and his wife Keri,  

Roxanne’s son Jeffrey and his wife Samantha of Bozeman, Montana.  Jeff’s boys: Clay and Ty  and  finally two very special granddaughters, Carli and Rachel, Jeff and Tammy’s girls.  He was thrilled to become a Great Grandpa with granddaughters, Taylor and Ryan from Bozeman.  

His grandson Ryan and his wife Keri are expecting a daughter whose birth will begin a sixth generation of Nielsens in Dublin.

Bud is held in great affection in the hearts and memories of so many people, including the children of his friends and the friends of his children.  His influence on so many was the result of his compassionate and caring nature, his dry wit, and his unfailing honest and forthright character.  

His children rejoice in knowing that this gentle giant of a man is walking again with the love of his life, their mother Marilyn.

A Celebration of Bud’s life will be held at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, August 4, 2013 near the barn of the Dublin Heritage Park,  corner of  Donlon Way  and Dublin Blvd.  Dublin, California.

There will be an open mike for those friends comfortable enough to share with our family their favorite memory or fun time with Bud.

In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution to www.familyfarmalliance.org