Winters Fire Protection District Board Member Biographies

Tony Turkovich — Father/Farmer/Owner

Tony has been a sustainable farmer in Yolo County for over 35 years. He received his BA in agricultural engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and completed an MBA at USC before returning to Winters to work for the Button Family on their farm. Since then, Tony has managed the farming operation at Button & Turkovich Ranch which produces crops such as tomatoes, alfalfa, sunflowers, prunes and oranges, and now, wine grapes. He is constantly working but when he finds time for a break, he enjoys hiking and fly fishing.

Dennis Mariani

“There has been a lot of hard work, that’s the key,” says Mariani, of the business that was founded in 1972 in California by his cousins Jack and Dennis Mariani. Looking for new farming opportunities outside the burgeoning Santa Clara Valley, the Mariani Family found a very similar micro-climate just 60 miles northeast of San Francisco in the town of Winters. The company initially began as a very small processor that mainly handled the walnuts from its own orchards.

Gloria Lopez

A second generation American, who was born and raised in Winters, California, still resides in the community. Both her maternal and paternal grandparents emigrated from Spain in the early 1900s. Gloria’s maternal grandparents, John and Alice Carbahal, came as young children with their parents on the first ship that left Spain for Hawaii in 1907. Her paternal grandparents, Rafael and Filomena Lopez, came through Ellis Island in 1920 when they were 35 years old. She and her husband, Michael Autry, are partners in the family farming business started by her parents, Sebastian and Marie Lopez.