Former county supervisor Warren Church dies at 87 using End-of-Life Option Act.

In his 12 years on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, Warren Church became known as the father of the Monterey County parks system and a champion of North County's rural character.

In his death, at age 87 on Sept. 2, Church wanted to be known for something different: as an advocate for the choice to end one's own life.

Church was among the first wave of Californians to use the End-of-Life Option Act, which became law last year after a fierce political battle waged in part by State Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel.

"My dad had strong opinions on it all through his life," says his son, Glenn Church. "Since I was a child, he told me if he was in declined health…he would hope there would be an opportunity at some point to control his life and end it with some dignity.

"He wanted to grab onto quality of life, and not quantity."

Church had been in declining health for about four years, and a liver mass began growing at an accelerated rate in the last few months of his life, and he began losing weight and lost the ability to walk on his own.

During his years on the Board of Supervisors, from 1965 to 1977, Church never missed a board meeting, according to a statement prepared by his family.

He was first elected in 1964 from a field of six candidates in the primary. He went on to help create the Monterey County Parks Department, the county Women’s Commission, the Abandoned Vehicle Abatement Program and health programs that included drug and alcohol rehabilitation services.

In an obituary provided by his family, his dozen years on the Board of Supervisors are characterized as a "period of great change for Monterey County."

Glenn remembers his father for standing up for land-use protections that protected North County from uninhibited growth, and for another key environmental victory: forcing out Humble Oil, which in the mid-'60s proposed a 3,800-acre industrial complex in Moss Landing that would have included a nuclear power plant.

That project was approved 3-2, but because of strict environmental regulations Church advanced, Humble Oil built its facility in Benicia instead.

Church was perhaps best known not for his political career, but as a local businessman who founded the Christmas Tree Farm on Hidden Valley Road in 1959.

Church lived in Monterey County for almost his entire life. He was born in 1929 in North County, just days before the stock market crashed and the Great Depression took hold. 

After attending Hartnell College and Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, he was drafted in 1951 and served with the U.S. Army 987th Artillery Division in Korea, where he received a Purple Heart.

A celebration of Church's life is being planned and details about an event will follow.