Obituaries

Peg Kovar, Walnut Creek's First Female Mayor, Dies

Kovar became involved in city politics out of concern for preserving the city's open space.

Margaret "Peg" Kovar, Walnut Creek's first female mayor, died Friday of complications following surgery at Kaiser Medical Center. She was 77.

In addition to being on the council and mayor, Kovar, a 45-year resident of Walnut Creek, also the first president of Save Mount Diablo, reports the Contra Costa Times. 

Kovar's entree into politics began like a lot of women in the 1960s, many of whom were stay-at-home moms with young children. Moving to Walnut Creek with her husband Fred in 1966, she became a member of the League of Women voters.

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She was one of two open space proponents voted onto the council in the early 1970s after the previous council voted to approve a 600-home subdivision on 200 acres below Shell Ridge, according to the book Walnut Creek, An Illusrated History, by former Walnut Creek public information officer Brad Rovanpera.

As a new council member, Kovar worked with a group that successfully pushed for a $6 million bond measure to buy 1,800 acres for preservation.

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Kovar became mayor in 1975 and would serve two more times in 1978-79 and in 1981-82 before retiring from the council in 1985.  During her time as mayor, Walnut Creek leaders set the stage for defining how the community would move forward after a period of unprecedented growth.

Walnut Creek's population had jumped from 9,000 in 1960 to 46,000 in 1975. 

Politics, according to Rovanpera, would become a nasty war of words and clashing principles over growth that would fester for years. 

Kovar was on the council when the city adopted a core-area plan for development around the Walnut Creek BART station. Her effort t0 form redevelopment agencies paid off when the city was able to lure Bullock's shopping center to Broadway Plaza, thus ensuring an anchor tenant that had been missing since J. C. Penney and and Sears moved to the new Sunvalley shopping center in 1966.

Kovar's advocacy for downtown continued as she became one of the core city leaders and community activists who helped start the decades-long work on building the Lesher Center for the Arts, which opened in 1990.

By the time the center opened, Kovar had left the council, but she remained active in local causes, including the Walnut Creek Arts Council, the Chamber of Commerce board, museum director of the Shadelands Historical Museum and executive director of the Valley on Aging.

Kova is survived by her husband, four children and four grandchildren. Services will be held 10 a.m. Thursday at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Walnut Creek.


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