On Veterans Day 2020, Joe Anderson put two centenarian World War II aviators aboard his restored 1942 transport plane for flights over the Golden Gate Bridge. Anderson, the Arizona healthcare entrepreneur who co-founded Benovia Winery and directed his success toward Sonoma County causes, died on August 4, 2026, at 76, The Press Democrat reported.

Anderson built organizations for other people long before he owned vineyards or an airplane. Born in Arizona on September 23, 1949, he worked as a meat cutter through high school and Arizona State University. He then spent 17 years in state government. With Governor Bruce Babbitt and physician Don Schaller, he helped develop Arizona's managed-care approach to Medicaid and focused his career on health services for low-income residents.

In 1986, Anderson, Schaller and Patricia Davis founded Schaller Anderson Inc. The company managed public health plans and advised clients across eight states, growing to roughly 1,800 employees. Aetna acquired the business in July 2007 for approximately $535 million. Its scale extended work Anderson had begun in government: organizing care for people who depended on public programs.

Healthcare also brought Anderson and Mary Dewane together. They met through national Medicaid policy work in Washington, D.C., in the early 1990s and married in 2004. Cycling trips and harvest work drew them toward Sonoma County. A Providence St. Joseph Health Foundation report recounted the decisive tasting: Burt Williams poured Anderson a 1993 Cohn Vineyard Pinot Noir, and Anderson bought the historic vineyard soon afterward.

The couple purchased the Cohn property in 2003 and opened Benovia Winery two years later with winemaker and partner Mike Sullivan. The name joined their fathers' names, Ben Dewane and Novian Anderson. Anderson had moved from health-plan administration to farming, but his organizing instinct carried over. As co-chairs of the 2015 Sonoma County Wine Auction, he and Dewane helped raise a record $4.5 million for literacy programs, The Press Democrat reported.

Their giving moved among needs that could be met concretely. Anderson supported the Redwood Empire Food Bank, Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and YWCA Sonoma County. After the 2017 firestorms, he rallied relatives, friends and winery customers to contribute nearly $400,000 to recovery. Courageous Care wine helped the food bank in 2020. Four years later, Good Press wine supported journalism scholarships and reporting resources, with matched gifts multiplying each sale's contribution to the Press Democrat Journalism Trust, Wine Industry Advisor reported.

The Spirit of Benovia gave Anderson another way to turn ownership into service. In 2019 he joined historic aircraft over Normandy for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. The flight became part of Into Flight Once More, a documentary he helped produce. The following Veterans Day, former aviators Al Maggini, 105, and Del Tiedeman, 100, flew separately aboard the plane. Tiedeman took the controls. Anderson told The Press Democrat, "I'm the luckiest man in the world to be able to share this airplane with these men."

The projects differed in scale and setting, but they followed one durable idea: resources became more valuable when put to work for others. Anderson's work remains visible in Arizona's Medicaid history, Benovia's Cohn vines and charitable wines, and The Spirit of Benovia. Its results are concrete: healthcare systems for low-income patients, reading programs funded, newsroom training supported, food relief strengthened and veterans welcomed into a vintage cockpit once more.