Jeff Wenzel, Community Beyond Violence

Host Hollie Grimaldi Flores brings us the story of Jeff Wenzel, a retired sales executive who serves his community as a board member of the Community Beyond Violence in Nevada County. Born in Brooklyn, he lived with Orthodox Jewish grandparents from Lithuania until age 7, when his family settled in Los Angeles, where he was put in a special speech class due to his Brooklyn accent! To Marin County for college, he met his future wife Lynn, joined the Army and eventually won the support of his future father-in-law. Jeff worked for Mattel in Los Angeles and then Manhattan for over 30 years, then he and Lynn came West to Berkeley where he worked for a video game producer and then ended his working career as a freight forwarding executive. They came to Nevada City in 1998 where they drove down Broad Street, fell in love with the area and ended up buying a house here the next day. A Rotary club membership brought Jeff the opportunity to support Polio Plus and that led to many other civic engagements, and eventually to his passionate support for women’s rights and service with the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Coalition, now known as Community Beyond Violence. He loves spending time with his kids and grandkids.