The grand opening of Rominger West Winery in Davis will proceed as scheduled one week from tomorrow, and a day after a memorial service for founding partner Charles Albert Rominger.

A fifth-generation Yolo County farmer, Rominger died of cancer Sunday in a Davis hospital. The winery, which he established with friend Mark West in 2004, moved into its new quarters in August and was the subject of a recent column in The Sacramento Bee.

Born on May 28, 1954, Rominger was a 1972 graduate of Winters High School and a 1978 graduate of UC Davis, where he earned degrees in agricultural enginerring and agricultural science and management.

He immediately took charge of the family's 2,000-acre wheat operation. In recent years he and his brothers Rick and Bruce farmed 3,500 acres of assorted crops.

Over the years he received many honors for his work on sustainable agricultural practices, farmland preservation and wildlife habitat restoration. "Protecting the land was his life's work," said his wife, Cairn.

Charlie Rominger also was given the California Attorney General's Certificate of Valor Award for saving an unconscious child drowning in an irrigation canal in 1984.

In addition to his wife and brothers, he is survived by his daughter Cienna and his son Aldo, named after famed conservationist Aldo Leopold; his parents, Richard and Evelyne Rominger, of Winters; and his sister, Ruth Rominger of Morro Bay.

The memorial service will be at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27, at St. Anthony's Parish Center, 511 Main St., Winters. In lieu of flowers, his family has asked that donations be made to either the Charlie Rominger Farmland Preservation Fund at the Yolo Land Trust, P.O. Box 1196, Woodland 95776, or the Winters Friends of the Library, 201 First St., Winters 95694.