The family of a Kenwood man seriously injured in an October motorcycle accident near Glen Ellen has taken to crowdfunding to raise money for his continued medical care. It’s the latest blow to a clan with long-standing connection to the Sonoma Valley which has suffered its share of setbacks in recent years.
Scott Lindquist, 65, was riding his 2002 BMW motorcycle on Highway 12 on Oct. 17 when he collided with a driver making a right-hand turn at Arnold Drive. He suffered major injuries and was rushed to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. The driver of the other vehicle and his passengers were uninjured.
Lindquist was later transferred to Stanford Medical Center, then Kaiser San Francisco, where he remains in a coma.
Lindquist is a grandson of Winfield “Ernie” Smith, a pioneering radio journalist for whom El Verano’s Ernie Smith Park is named. His mother is Mickey Cooke, a well-known conservationist in the Glen Ellen area, and his uncle was longtime Glen Ellen fire chief Winfield Smith.
His older sister, Kirsten Lindquist, was a real estate agent and conservation leader in Glen Ellen, a board member of both the Sonoma Land Trust and the Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation. She died in 2015 from pancreatic cancer.
The family has begun a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Lindquist’s medical care. They describe his results of the accident as “severe traumatic brain injury and major trauma to the body.”
Mona Lindquist describes her brother as “a craftsman, a home builder and an artist of construction… The homes he builds portray his clients’ personalities, their lives and their values, not his own.”
He ran his own building company, Habitus, most recently in Santa Fe before returning to the Valley to be with his family following his sister’s death.
“We’re remaining hopeful. I don’t know what to say,” said Mona in a recent call with the Index-Tribune. “It’s amazing how fast life can change, in a matter of seconds.”
Scott Lindquist was one of a small group of local men who worked through the night of Oct. 9, 2017, to prevent the Nuns fire from spreading through Glen Ellen to the Sonoma Developmental Center and Sonoma Mountain, from near his mother’s Hill Road property.
Andrew Macdonald, a government geologist who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, told the Index-Tribune he met the family when they moved to Fairfax County when the three children were of high school age, and visited them in Sonoma Valley often. “These are people that have been in the community for a long time,” he said.
Scott and Alania Lindquist have two daughters, Lilly and Kirsten. There are also two grown sons, Lars and Anders, from an earlier marriage.
In a statement on the fundraising page, Alania Lindquist said, “I could never have imagined that our life could change so quickly and I am trying to remain as present as possible for Scott and our girls while also wondering what our future will look like. From what I can gather, Scott’s recovery will be a long process with many challenges along the way.”
The campaign, which began on Nov. 2, has a goal of $250,000, of which almost $35,000 has been donated so far from 96 donors. To learn more or contribute, visit gf.me/u/y642cc.