The body of Ken Gosting, who was a high-ranking aide to Attorney General Jerry Brown during his governorship three decades ago, was found near his home in the Sierra foothills last week and local authorities said it appeared to be a suicide.
Gosting, 62, a one-time Sierra Club adviser on Yomesite National Park issues and most recently head of a rail transportation organization called Transportation Involves Everyone, appears to have died of a drug overdose of some kind, a spokesman for the Mariposa County sheriff's office said.
Deputies found Gosting's body in Mariposa Creek Saturday after a friend reported him missing upon finding his home empty with the front door ajar. Deputies found a note in the home and then began searching for Gosting.
"It's currently ruled as a suicide," a sheriff's office spokesman said. "It appears to be an overdose."
Gosting became an adviser to Brown on transportation and emergency services after working in his 1974 campaign, but resigned in 1976, 20 months into Brown's governorship, with a blast at Brown's position on a pending bill, saying Brown was acting out of political expediency.
Brown, who announced his candidacy for a second stint as governor on Tuesday, said through a spokesman that he hadn't talked to Gosting in 30 years, but added, "Ken was a very imaginative guy, He foresaw tha value of trains in mass transit. He was way ahead of his time, and he was good guy."
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