About The Authors

** All Text on this page has been copied verbatim – with permission – from this book: “Shurtleff Family Genealogy & History – Second Edition 2005” by William Roy Shurtleff & his dad, Lawton Lothrop Shurtleff **

LAWTON LOTHROP SHURTLEFF

Born November 6, 1914 in Oakland, California, at Alta Bates

Hospital. Education: Tamalpais Boys School, Piedmont High School, U. C. Berkeley, Harvard Business School.

Occupation: Manufacturer of mechanics’ hand tools (CEO Thorsen Tool Co.), land development and housing construction (partner Mackay Homes), and best of all, a rancher in Sonoma County California.

Q. Why did you decide to write this book?
To help make Bill’s original (1987) book attractive and read-able by illustrating it with hundreds of family photographs, old and new, and captions to pique a reader’s curiosity—then, in the process, discovering there was much Shurtleff family history to be researched and written.

Q. Favorite men characters in this book:
My father and my mentor, Roy Shurtleff, my uncle and business partner, Harry Peet, and of course, my hero, uncle Harry Lawton.

Q. Favorite women characters:
My wonderful grandmother, Charlotte “Lottie” Shurtleff, her amazing mother, Maria Louisa Avann, and, of course, my pioneering wife, Anneke.

Q. Enjoyed most in working on this book:
Working with over 1,000 family photographs, learning about the stories they told while renewing friendships and memories of family members who had provided them.

Q. Things you like most about this book:
The story it tells, through prose and illustrations, of two totally different families from totally different backgrounds, travelling halfway ’round the world to meet happily in Berkeley, California. Some of its rare characters, and Akiko’s elegant and educational two sets of classic “end papers” that set the tone for the stories they contain.

WILLIAM ROY SHURTLEFF

Born 28 April 1941, Oakland, California. Education: Acalanes High School, Stanford University BA, BS, and MA degrees.

Occupation: Author, founder and owner of Soyfoods Center, database producer, practical mystic. Residence: Lafayette, California. Main interests: Meditation, service, social justice, the nature of reality, deep ecology, history, vegetarianism, soy foods.

Q. Why did you decide to write this book?
To try to understand the lives of my ancestors, and especially of my parents and grandparents. Hoped to tell the story of these two families, based on careful research, integrating genealogy (my grandfather published a fine Shurtleff genealogy) and family history, as a gift to my wonderful grandparents and their descendants. Everything comes with a history. I believe the best way to understand almost anything (a person, a family, a nation) is to understand its history.

Q. Favorite men characters in this book:
Harry Lawton, Don Lawton, Roy L. Shurtleff.

Q. Favorite women characters:
Helen Lawton, Maria Louisa Avann, Nancy Shurtleff Miller.

Q. Enjoyed most in working on this book
Genealogical and historical research for 20 years. Listening to Don Lawton’s stories about the lives of my ancestors. Reflecting on the mysterious relationship between individual lives and the broader history of the times in which they lived.

Q. Things you like most about this book:
I have sought the truth, and hope this is a full, fair, and balanced account of the lives of the main characters, as they were—neither better nor worse. The many innovations in storytelling, layout, and design. That so many people contributed so much to it. The generosity of Lawton (my father), Gene, and Nancy Shurtleff, which enabled us to spare no expense in making this book and to send copies free of charge to all interested relatives and libraries.