Volunteer receptionist wins Quality of Life Award

Grace Komo, volunteer receptionist at San Anselmo Town Hall for 17 years, has won the Quality of Life Commission's Silver Award.

The Quality of Life Commission unanimously voted at a recent meeting to give her the honor, which is aimed at "unsung heroes" who have benefited the town.

Komo will receive her award at the 7 p.m. Town Council meeting Tuesday, Aug. 10 at Town Hall.

The sprightly 87-year-old winner, who's lived in San Anselmo for 56 years, retired last month after having greeted visitors, assisted customers, and directed phone calls since the inception of the volunteer program.

"Boy, do you get a bunch of crazy questions on the phone, like 'We have a deer in our road; what should we do?'" she said. "But you have to be nice."

Being nice obviously is not difficult for Komo. She is open, warm-hearted and jolly — and every bit as interested in learning about other people as in relating her own tale.

Komo, who has also done sundry volunteer work at St. Anselm's Church, where she's been in the choir 43 years, started at Town Hall when a friend asked her to join her on Tuesday mornings. Later, she switched to Wednesday afternoons.

When she began, her husband was working and she didn't drive. So she walked each day to the center of town, then back to their home above United Market.

The workplace, too, was no piece of cake.

"They didn't have voice mail," she remembers.

Komo also recalls that although everyone was normally "wonderful and helpful," every now and then she'd run across someone who was what she calls "moody."

Over all, she says, "I loved it there, and I love this town. It's a beautiful place. Everybody's so friendly here."

Her husband John, a retired contractor, agrees: "I love the fact that when we moved here, San Anselmo's population was about 13,000, and that it hasn't increased."

Grace Komo laughed at the only screw-up she can remember.

"I felt terrible because, oh, my God, I transferred someone to the wrong person. But she called back and it turned out OK," she said.

Retirement will mean more time for her to garden, to take photos (she still prefers "an old-fashioned camera, not digital") and to spend more time with "the beautiful family I've been blessed with" – a son and daughter, five grandchildren and nine great-grandkids.

Indeed, the Komos particularly treasure their studio, the one with wall-to-wall, year-to-year photographs of that family (plus one of the Pope and one of Shirley Temple).

Grace Komo will become the 14th Silver Award winner. Previous recipients include Ben Burtt, Royce Truex and Jo Gross, Michael Schwab, Deborah Cichocki, Kay Peacock, Frank Ortiz, Tom Boss, the husband-and-wife team of Patricia and Chuck Swensen, Bill Abright, Cynnie Barrows, Marilyn Girodo, Sophia Spencer and Dollie Frauens.

Silver and the more environmentally oriented Green Awards are handed out in alternate months. Nominations for either can be e-mailed to townclerk@ci.san-anselmo.ca.us or mailed or hand-delivered to the Quality of Life Commission c/o the Town of San Anselmo, 525 San Anselmo Ave.