Regina Malie Lutz

As part of the storied Robert Mondavi Winery public relations team, Regina played an important role in helping introduce the rest of the country, and indeed the world, to the wines of California. For three decades, she worked closely with Robert Mondavi and his family to promote their wines, wineries, and events to her many contacts and friends in the trade media. In 2003, when the original Robert Mondavi Winery and many of the company's brands were purchased by Constellation, Regina began consulting independently with wineries in Napa and Sonoma on media strategy and marketing communications. She delighted in her work, cherished her longtime industry friends and the younger women she mentored, and treasured the beauty of the Napa Valley landscape.

Regina was beloved among her many friends for her warmth, generosity, deep intuition, and unfailing support. She enjoyed celebrating birthdays, graduations, weddings, and holidays-any reason to host a party or attend one-and loved nothing more than meeting friends for lunch or dinner. She and her partner, Charlie, were regulars at several Napa restaurants, including Pizzeria Azzurro and the Norman Rose Tavern, where they befriended everyone on staff.

Regina was an animal lover with a special place in her heart for cats. She volunteered at Napa Humane, helped other cat lovers with adoptions, and provided a home for generations of her own special companions. Friends could travel with total peace of mind, knowing Regina would lavish the same loving care on their cats as she did her own. No stray within her orbit went hungry, and several spent their final months on a warm heating pad in the comfort of Regina's garage. She also loved wild creatures, and often fed birds, squirrels, and even the occasional possum.

Plants, too, thrived under Regina's attentive care. Her windows, porches, and gardens showcased a collection of beautifully tended flowers, trees, and succulents. She loved giving plants to friends, and these reminders of her thoughtfulness live on in many homes and gardens around Napa: rose bushes, fruit trees, bottlebrush ferns, jades, orchids, hydrangea, and plumeria.

Regina "Ding" Malie Lutz was born on July 16, 1947, at Fort Knox ARMY base in Kentucky to Colonel Raymond Koliaokalani Lutz, Ret., and Francis Alene Joyner, of Stuckee, Georgia. Her father was a direct descendant of the "First-Year People" who immigrated to Hawaii from Japan after the surrender of the last Japanese Emperor. As a U.S. Air Force pilot he served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. In World War II, he was shot down over mainland China, and Regina loved to recount the story of how her father and his crew trekked an astonishing 600 miles to Burma, a journey that, years later, landed him an invitation to dinner at the White House.

As a child, Regina was enchanted by the church bells of Honolulu. Passing the church with her father, she'd bounce on the passenger seat of the car and imitate the bells until her father began calling her "Ding"; she was "Ding" to her family from then on. The military family moved often, and Regina attended schools in Hawaii, Japan, Pennsylvania, Washington, and California, making friends easily and developing the social skills that would come in handy as she built her wine industry career.

Regina is preceded in death by her sister, Rachelle "Momi" Edna Kaumana Lutz, her brother, James Melvin Kale Lutz, her niece Dawn Lutz, and two husbands, Gary Pelle and Manny Garcia. She is survived by her brother, Raymond "Haku" Koliaokalani Lutz, Jr., her nieces, Kiele (Akimoto) Pennington, Jaime Fitchett, Kamakana (Fitchett) Watanabe, several great nieces and nephews, many loved ones near and far, and Charles T. Eckstrom III, an old friend with whom she reconnected in August of 1996 and shared the last 29 years of her life.

Please make any donations in memory of Regina M. Lutz to Napa Humane. A celebration of life will be scheduled for later this year.

Regina Malie Lutz

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