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Gene Benedetti was born on December 19, 1919 in Sonoma, CA, the son of Italian immigrants. His parents lived on a ranch in Santa Rosa until they could afford to buy a 13-acre spread in Cotati, where they began to operate a dairy, raise poultry and livestock, and to teach Benedetti agriculture from the age of two. Benedetti attended schools in Cotati, and Petaluma High School, where he played football. He went on to play football at Santa Rosa Junior College, and then at USF. A gifted athlete, he played center against the Stanford team, coached by Clark Shaughnessy, that used the T-formation for the first time.
After graduating in 1942, Benedetti joined the Navy and served as an officer in many naval invasions in Africa, Tunis, Sicily, Messino, Salerno and Anzio. He was a skipper of the lead landing craft tank (LCT) craft in the United States invasion of Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944. Benedetti described it as the “worst and longest day of his life”, and added: “After Normandy, I never think about yesterday and I never worry about tomorrow (The Press Democrat).” Following the war, he worked as an Assistant Football Coach and a History teacher at Santa Rosa Junior College.
While at a sports banquet in Petaluma, he met George Dondero, the manager of Petaluma’s California Cooperative Creamery. Dondero was looking for young veterans who could speak Italian and knew the area, because many of the dairy farmers were Italian and the Cooperative wanted to buy their milk. Benedetti was enjoying his coaching and teaching jobs, and initially declined the offer, until Dondero agreed to help him establish a semi-professional football team in Petaluma as part of the agreement. Benedetti accepted and the Petaluma Leghorns were formed, with Benedetti serving as the Coach from 1948 to 1958.
Benedetti succeeded Dondero as co-op manager in 1955, and bought the brand as well as that of the Stornetta Dairy in Schellville, and established the Clover-Stornetta Farms in 1977 which remains a family business to this day. He was known to be an astute businessman as well as a fierce patriot.
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