H. ALOYSE SINNOTT

H. Aloyse Sinnott, former Santa Rosa resident and longtime librarian at

Santa Rosa High School, died Aug. 10. She was 104. She retired as Santa Rosa

High's librarian in 1955 after serving for more than 30 years at the school.

She started at the school as a teacher, according to her nephew, John Arnold

of Menlo Park.

''She was respected by the faculty at Santa Rosa High,'' said Douglas

Campbell, retired Santa Rosa High School District administrator, who also had

been a teacher at Santa Rosa High. ''Aloyse battled tight budgets to make the

library a place for study and research,'' he said.

Sinnott, born in Warm Springs near Milpitas, attended Notre Dame High

School in San Jose and graduated from San Jose Normal School, which became San

Jose State University.

She moved to Palo Alto in 1917. She taught briefly in the Palo Alto school

system's old Lytton School before moving to Santa Rosa, where she continued

her career. She returned to Palo Alto when she retired.

Her grandfather, John Sinnott, moved to Canada from Ireland in 1831 and

brought his family to California in 1951, becoming a leading farmer in Santa

Clara County. Patrick Sinnott, Sinnott's father, also farmed the property

which became the site of the Ford Motor Co. plant in Milpitas.

Sinnott was a member of the Palo Alto Chapter of the American Association

of University Women. She traveled the country and Europe in retirement, her

nephew said.

A memorial Mass will be at 11 a.m. Aug. 25 at St. Ann's Chapel at Cowper

and Melville, Palo Alto. Memorial donations are preferred to St. Elizabeth

Seton School in Palo Alto.\