Originally Posted in San Francisco Chronicle
January 22, 1951 – December 27, 2015
John Paul Gachina, 64, was the founder, CEO and President of Gachina Landscape Management and a loving husband and father. Born in San Jose, John passed away peacefully at his Los Altos home surrounded by his family on December 27, 2015.
He leaves behind his wife, Jaclyn Ishimaru Gachina, and his sons Michael Gachina and Dominic Gachina. He is also survived by his sister Joan Marie Ramage, her husband Ed, his niece, Shannon Mees and nephew, Scott Smith and their families. His parents, Peter and Dorothy Gachina of Cupertino, preceded John in death.
John began his life long passion of nurturing and maintaining greenery at a summer job in high school as a greens keeper on a local golf course. Starting his first business in his back yard garage in 1975, John developed this passion into the highly regarded and nationally recognized landscape maintenance business of today, Gachina Landscape Management, founded in 1988. John was an entrepreneur and a visionary of his company and recognized as a pioneer of the industry. He was a past Chair of the CLCA Public Relations committee, and was “a founding father” of the Landscape Industry Technician Program. John was a tireless volunteer with the program that is widely accepted to certify the skills and talents of landscape professionals through the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP). Locally John served the SFBA Chapter of CLCA in different roles such as Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, and was instrumental in the Education Committee and job training project.
His company was the recipient of numerous prestigious awards at the national, state and local levels; including the National Grand Award and State Sweepstakes Awards for Excellence in Landscape Management. Gachina has received over 168 awards since 1988. In 2005, the company was recognized as a Best Places to Work. Gachina Landscape Management was also recognized for three years in a row as the only landscape company to be ranked a Top 100 Healthiest Employers in the Bay Area. John was endlessly proud of his organization and his passionate employees. To that end, the company will host a private Celebration of Life service for employees to be held January 31, 2016.
John supported many community organizations, and had a special connection with JobTrain. He served on Job Train’s Board of Trustees, Annual Golf Tournament committee and Breakfast of Champions sponsor. In 1996, John was honored with the Community Champion Award and in 2015 was Honorary Chairman of the Annual Golf Classic.
Always experiencing life as an adventure, John toured the world on his own in 1987. He also enjoyed traveling with his family, golfing, skiing and surfing. John was a devoted husband and father who loved time spent together at home or at his beach house. He was excited to have his sons join him in the work he loved.
The family would prefer, in lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of John may be made to JobTrain or CLCA’s LEAF Scholarship Fund. Visit www.gachina.com for more details.
A Celebration of Life service for industry, community, clients, and family friends will be held on Saturday, January 30th at 6 pm. You are welcome to join us at 5pm. The service will be held at Napredak Hall, 770 Montague Expressway, San Jose 95131. Space is limited. Please reply to Celebrationoflife@gachina.com before January 22nd if you plan to attend.
Published in San Francisco Chronicle – See more here
