According to the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat..."Fred Furth, the brash and grand, cigar-puffing, high-flying attorney, vintner and philanthropist who made an international destination of Chalk Hill Winery near Windsor, died Saturday, one week after he struck his head in a fall at his home in Florida."
Quentin Kopp, former San Francisco supervisor had this to say about Fred, "He was incisive. he was generous. And he was a person of many dimensions."
Perhaps, but these descriptions of Fred aren't part of my vocabulary. Some years ago Fred invited, paid for, and flew his relatives to the Chalk Hill Winery he founded and called "Furtheim." He wanted portraits of each of the families. I was hired. I drove to the winery, met with his wife-de-jour Peggy and scouted locations. On the day of the shoot I drove to Chalk Hill and photographed each of the families, perhaps a dozen or so. We worked with our color lab in San Francisco to create hand-printed 8x10 images of each family and placed them in a leather album, expecting that he would keep it as a memory of the weekend. After the shoot we were gifted with a bottle of Chardonnay. We offered to sell reprints of the families, recouping our expenses for the proof book. The bill was about $2500 of which close to $1500 was out of my pocket. (I think we offered to sell 8x10s for about $25.)
Fred called. "That's outrageous!" he screamed. "I won't pay it. Unless," he added, "you give me all the negatives". I tried to reason with him. "Fred, we don't sell the negatives. Those are the property of the photographer. I also need them when I make enlargements so that the lab can follow my directions." Unconvinced, Fred added, "You're a fairly young man and new in business. I have a lot of influence in this community." Clearly Fred was threatening me. I thought about taking him to Small Claims Court, but at that time we were in our "senior season", photographing the hundreds of high school senior portraits we did for twenty-six years while living in Santa Rosa. I thought about it, but ultimately discarded the idea.
According to the PD, Fred said about himself, “I’m a modern-day, legal Robin Hood,” Furth told The Press Democrat in 1991. Another time he said, “I’ll pull for the little guy getting pushed around every time.” Only, this time I was the little guy, and Fred was the one doing all the pushing.
I told Fred, "I won't give you the negatives," Fred replied, "I won't pay your bill. I can make copies for myself from the photographs you took."
I kept the bottle of Chardonnay. I intended to drink it the day Fred died, but when I mentioned my plan to one of my friends he responded, "What if the bottle goes bad? Then Fred will have screwed you twice." I retrieved the $2500 bottle of Chardonnay from my wine cellar and popped the cork. It was wonderful.