Robert Praetzel, a Marin County lawyer who helped put a stop to the Marincello real estate project, has died at age 97.
Mr. Praetzel died of natural causes on Feb. 4 at his home in Kentfield.
Mr. Praetzel was one of the leaders of the 1960s battle that stopped Marincello, a residential and commercial development proposal in the Marin Headlands. The land is now preserved as parkland.
Mr. Praetzel’s wife, Nancy Praetzel, 91, said he would be remembered as a pioneering protector of the county’s open space.
“He was a wonderful man, full of integrity, compassion and generosity, he employed all that as a lawyer,” she said. “His crowning joy was Marincello, but he had a million other things he did.”
Mr. Praetzel, along with his law partner Martin Rosen of Mill Valley, fought back against the planned development funded by Gulf Oil. It would have housed more than 25,000 people on 2,160 acres, Rosen said.
“It was his brilliance alone that was responsible for the creation of the Golden Gate national park district,” Rosen said. “When people walk on the open space of Marin County they should be grateful to a man of talent, vision and perseverance.”
Rosen and Mr. Praetzel led legal challenges that ultimately resulted in the failure and abandonment of the project.
“The headlands and the parklands out there, in my opinion, and Robert’s opinion, are much more important than any city,” Nancy Praetzel said. “We needed to hang on to that little bit of paradise.”
Mr. Praetzel was born in San...
The notorious ShinyHunters gang on Tuesday claims to have breached the FBI, compromising multiple systems and agent data – all in apparent retaliation against the law enforcement agency for publis...