Helen Ruth Heibel

Helen Ruth Heibel was born in San Francisco just after the start of World War II and is a third generation Californian.  She moved with her parents to Pope Valley in 1945 when her parents bought Aetna Springs Resort. Life was good at the resort with lots of people during the summer and just the family and a couple of employees during the winter.  Helen always loved horses and started riding at the age of 3, her horse was her best friend.  She attended Pope Valley School with two others in her grade, when it was just a two-room school house, and started 1st grade when she was 5 since there was no kindergarten.  She attended St. Helena Jr. & Sr. High School from the 7th – 12th grades with 80 other classmates, and the bus ride around Conn Dam took one hour.

At age 12, Helen took complete charge of the resort stables feeding, cleaning, saddling horses and leading trail rides.  This was 7 days a week during the summer. After mornings at the stables she supervised Children’s Dinner and playtime so the parents could have some adult time.  At night she called Bingo for the guests, except on Friday and Saturday when there was square dancing.

At St. Helena High School, Helen played saxophone in the band, was class treasurer, a pompom girl and also participated in other activities.  After graduation in 1959 she attended University of the Pacific in Stockton.  She continued her duties at the resort every summer until her graduation and then spent 80 days touring 14 European countries.

After graduating from U.O.P. in 1963, she got her teaching credential and taught kindergarten in Sunnyvale for 2 years.  In 1964, she married John Michael Ghiringhelli and moved to St. Helena.  She taught kindergarten and 1st grade at El Centro Elementary School in Napa before transferring to St. Helena School in St. Helena in 1967 to teach kindergarten.  She taught until sons Michael and Trent were born, taking 8 years off to be Mom and bookkeeper for her husband’s bar, Ray’s Place.

Helen returned to teaching in 1979, the same year her father George died, and taught kindergarten and K-1 until her retirement in 1999.  Her husband John died in 1989 and son Michael had a very serious auto accident in 1992.

In 1999 Helen married Bruce Nelson and enjoyed retirement until Michael moved from his rehabilitation center to their St. Helena home in 2002.  Mike now lives in a care facility in Concord which gives them more time to work in the vineyard and focus on other things necessary to get Heibel Ranch Vineyards off of the ground.

Helen also likes to spend time in the vineyard helping with weeding, pruning, and particularly picking the fruit at harvest time.  She also enjoys spending time in the hills clearing roads, gathering firewood and building burn piles.  But most of all, she relishes the opportunities to work at the ranch with her family!