Quick Take
Capitola resident Rose Filicetti was a "force to be reckoned with" in the world of local nonprofits. The activist and volunteer community leader died Monday at the age of 73 from complications after heart surgery. A community remembers her tireless contributions.
Every strong community needs a person like Rose Filicetti — a doer, a connector, an activist, a leader who radiates “big boss energy.” In Santa Cruz County, Filicetti, who died on Monday at the age of 73, checked all those boxes. But, say some who knew her best, she put the “social” in social justice.
“If Rose wanted something done, it got done,” said her friend Michele Bassi, “and you either hopped on board or moved aside. But Rose was also … just fun. She had a purple streak in her hair — purple is her favorite color — and she always had her nails done perfectly and dressed in whatever theme the event called for. She liked to call herself a party person.”
After a long career as a staffer for former state senator and Santa Clara County supervisor Joe Simitian, Filicetti and her husband, Neal Savage, moved from Mountain View to Capitola more than a decade ago, supposedly to retire. In fact, Filicetti jumped headlong into activism in her adopted community, particularly in the area of young people and education. She joined the board of the Watsonville-based youth education center Digital NEST and later founded Nonprofit Connections Santa Cruz County, devoted to streamlining social services for K-12 students and creating alliances among local nonprofits. She served as the nonprofit’s executive director until her death.
She also created an informal network of local women initially called “Not From Here,” because it included newcomers to the area who nevertheless wanted to get involved in the community. The social circle became so popular that it soon welcomed longtime locals and rechristened itself “Now From Here.” It remains an informal group dedicated to “have fun, connect and engage in interesting conversations.”
“She was a warrior,” said her close friend Suzanne “Z” Doty, who first met Filicetti when both women were living in the South Bay. “So many people knew her and loved her. She mentored people. She connected people. She networked — that was her key skill: connecting people who were like-minded or who needed to know one another.”
Doty was an early contributor to Nonprofit Connections, which launched during the pandemic, and, from that perch, she got to see Filicetti operate: “I thought, ‘Y’know, this is really a fabulous idea to connect all the nonprofits.’’ Santa Clara County and other Bay Area communities had nonprofit organizations devoted to helping other nonprofits run more efficiently. But Santa Cruz County did not, said Doty. “I jumped in. I just had to be part of it.”
“Rose was a force to be reckoned with,” said friend Karen Storey, “very hard-driving and persevering. She wasn’t what you would call a warm and fuzzy person, but she was a deeply caring person. She was very much all about social justice. She was truly dedicated to making life better for everybody in the community.”
Filicetti died from complications of heart surgery. She had been in intensive care for nearly three weeks, enduring three bouts of open-heart surgery. Her husband posted on CaringBridge that she died surrounded by family, including her three adult children — a daughter in Colorado, another in New Mexico and a son who lives in the South Bay.
“She was so intelligent and so compassionate,” said Suzanne Doty. “She was very politically astute and she was a great source of information about anything. But I think the thing she was most proud of were her children, and the fact that all three of them are stellar members of their own communities. She was so proud that all of them had a clear direction in their lives, had wonderful partners and were all contributing to their community.”
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