** All Text on these chapter pages 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 ** Text in pdf convert to word doc – any spelling errors from the book may or may not have been fixed. ** (Note: Eugne Avery Shurtleff is the grandfather of the designer of this website).
In the previous chapters 13 through 23, we have followed the lives of Lawton, Gene, and Nancy as they grew up together. Now, we will look at what Gene did in his later years.
Gene Avery Shurtleff was born on 27 February 1917 in San Mateo, California. In December 1939, after an extra semester to catch up for the time he lost by attending to Columbia University, Gene graduated from U. C. Berkeley with a AB degree in economics. The last year, though officially living at home, he spent most of his time at the DU fraternity house. He had been a member of the Skull and Keys society, a so-called honor society, a nonacademic social organization that a few popular fraternity members were invited to join each year. When Gene proudly announced his membership to his father, Roy commented that in his days this society was reserved for heavy drinkers. Lawton called it a “drinking honor society.”
In 1940 Gene went to work full-time in the stock and bond business for Blyth & Co. in San Francisco. He had actually worked there in his youth during the summer as early as 1927-28. In late February 1940 Gene and Rose Maria Kerner announced their engagement. Gene recalls: “One day that spring I went alone to tell Hazle, who was in bed out at The Ranch, about our wedding plans. We sat and visited for about an hour, and she gave me lots of instructions and approval and support. As I walked out the door I noticed that Nancy and Willard had been sitting in the living room, and couldn’t have helped but overhearing all that was said. They walked in and announced that they were planning to get married too!” Nance adds: “Willard and I had come to visit with Hazle, but we had not planned to announce our engagement. Yet after we heard what Gene said we both looked at each other and said, ‘Why not?’ Of course, we always knew we were going to get married, we just didn’t know when.”
Gene and Rose were married on the evening of 3 August 1940 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley. Helen Kerner was maid of honor for her sister. The seven bride’s attendants, all Rose’s sorority sisters, included Nancy Shurtleff and Betty Hamilton. G. Willard Miller, Jr., was the best man.
Born on 23 April 1918 in New York, New York, Rose was the daughter of Robert J. Kerner and Frances Dorsey of Berkeley. Dr. Kerner was the esteemed Sather Professor of History at the University of California at Berkeley. His field was modern European history, and his specialty was Slavic studies, in which he was a pioneer in the United States. Rose had graduated with an AB degree from the University of California in June 1940. She was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and, by pure coincidence, a sorority sister of Nancy Shurtleff at University of California, Berkeley, and Bobbie Shurtleff at Stanford.
After a honeymoon steamer cruise in Alaska, Rose and Gene flew back to the Bay Area on one of the early Pan American Clippers to arrive in time for Nance and Willard’s wedding. Then they settled in Berkeley, while Gene continued his work at Blyth & Co. After their first child, Bob, was born on 26 May 1941, Gene sold 100 shares of U.S. Truck Lines stock (that Roy had given him at graduation time) for $1,500 and the couple bought a one and a half acre lot in Orinda next to the golf course at 400 Miner Rd. Using the lot as collateral, he borrowed $5,400 and built a nice home. Payments on the loan were $40 a month. On 22 June 1942 their second child, Kathie, was born. The U.S. had entered World War II on December 7, 1941.
Gene began his wartime service by leaving Blyth & Co. to do defense work at the Richmond shipyards and then at Thorsen Tool Co., where he temporarily took Lawton’s place. With two kids, he was exempt from the draft, and it took some time before he was able to get an officer’s commission. In mid-1944 he joined the Navy, went to Naval Officers Training School for three months at the University of Arizona, then served as a line officer aboard the USS Regulus, AK-14, a cargo supply ship that went to Manus Island, New Guinea, and Ulithi Atoll in the South Pacific, then Mindanao in the Philippines. He spent six months at Okinawa and was there when the war ended. At Buchner Bay he watched as the U.S. Army on shore and the Navy at sea fired their big guns to celebrate the victory and ended up doing a lot of damage to one another.
However, the war for Gene was not yet over. He was promoted to executive officer and ordered to return with his ship to the Richmond Shipyards on San Francisco Bay where the USS Regulus was scheduled for decommissioning. On 1 May 1946 Gene was released to inactive duty with honorable separation as lieutenant (jg) USNR. He was 29 years old.
On May 15 he returned to Blyth & Co. as a junior salesman with a salary of $300 per month. Their third child, Christine, was born in Berkeley, on 20 October 1949. They had outgrown their house at 400 Miner Road; they sold it in 1950 in order to purchase for $42,000 a larger home on a beautiful two-and-a-half-acre property with walnut, apple, and pear trees at 570 Miner Road about a mile up the road from the old home.
For Rose and Gene the future looked very bright. They had three delightful children, a comfortable, attractive home in Orinda, and an interest with Nancy, Willard, Lawton, and Bobbie in a summer cabin at Echo Lake. For parent and children alike, Echo Lake in the high Sierras was one of life’s great experiences. The cabins around the lake were accessible only by shank’s mare (on foot) or more commonly by boat—for guests, a water-taxi from Jorgy’s Chalet. None was accessible by automobile, which left the cabins pleasantly private.
first summer home, Echo Lake 1949.
Even the youngest, with their life vests securely fastened, were on their own, hiking the granite shoreline to visit their many neighboring friends. If not hiking they were in the putt-putt rowboat or even the little sailboat that came with the house. Later Gene, Bob, and Kathie built a small outboard-powered step hydroplane. As time passed there were fishing trips or just old-fashioned day-long hiking trips into nearby Desolation Valley. The kids were in a wilderness paradise.
Then there was the newly discovered craze for water skiing. This followed the first year of aqua-planking and preceded the present more sophisticated wake-boarding. Gene would drive the 16-foot Triad, an inboard Chris-Craft, then the only boat on the Lake powerful enough to pull six skiers simultaneously on two skis each, or a pair of skiers on one ski. It seemed water sports were endless.
With no automobiles to distract them, the kids had to create their own entertainment. Kathie can recall a crowd of her friends square-dancing in the large bedroom-boat house. Neighbor Frank Hamilton would call the dances to records on the old hand — cranked gramophone. The kids prepared gallons of Kool-Aid, peanut butter sandwiches, and other goodies. Another center of activity was Jorgy’s Chalet where the young folks traveled by boat to hang out at the soda fountain with their friends.
Bob Shurtleff went for several years to the Boy Scout camp on upper Echo Lake. Kathie wanted to work as a soda jerk at the Chalet but Rose and Gene felt it was not a proper environment for their budding young daughter. All in all, Echo summers were a world and a time they would never forget.
In June 1950, with $27,000 proceeds from sale of the house at 400 Miner Road, together with funds from Hazle’s estate, Gene and Rose purchased for $42,000 a larger house on 21/2 acres at 570 Miner Road in Orinda.
In November 1951, Gene was elected to the Pacific-Union Club and became an active member of the San Francisco Guardsmen, an organization dedicated to helping underprivileged children in the Bay Area and providing them with summer camps with funds raised through the annual sale of Christmas trees.
In 1956, Gene was promoted to the investment banking department in Blyth and then in January 1958 was transferred to the New York office for a six month training program. Christine went east with Rose and Gene to enroll at the Spence School. Bob and Kathie remained in California in boarding schools, Robert Louis Stevenson in Carmel and Desert Sun School in Idyllwild respectively. Gene and Rose rented an apartment at 2 East 82nd Street in New York City. He commuted daily to Blyth at 14 Wall Street, and Rose registered at the Art Institute in New York to pursue her interest in portrait painting. It was a new lifestyle for each member of the family, but it was a growing experience for all of them. In June 1958 the family returned to Orinda. In January 1959 Gene was elected vice president of Blyth & Co.
Image: Gene at his desk in front of Rose’s fine portraits of Blyth’s founders. Roy Shurtleff (left) and Charlie Blyth (right), circa 1980.
In July 1960 while Gene and his family were at Echo Lake, a terrible accident occurred. Gene, who had just opened the cabin, was checking the gas line (that supplied the house with lighting and cooking) for leaks, using a lighted taper, which is common for low-pressure leaks. However, a high-pressure Flamo Tank had been incorrectly installed, and when the taper’s flame got near it, flames shot out wildly and the house began to burn. Despite heroic efforts by friends and neighbors, the wonderful old cabin burned almost to the ground.
Within hours Lawton had called Dick Finnegan, his Mackay Homes’ architect, and offered a plane ticket to the South Tahoe airport. Gene and Lawton met him there and drove him to the old Shurtleff home on Madden Creek at Homewood. The facade there was something they felt appropriate, and that the old bark siding was no longer suitable. An hour later Dick was sitting by the smoking ruin of the old cabin sketching the design for the new cabin. The next day they had bids and were able to rebuild at a cost within their insured value. Rose played an important role in the reconstruction and exterior color selector. Rose, Gene, Bobbie and Lawton commuted daily from Lawton’s cabin at Tahoe to Echo and back till the job was completed.
Images: Gene with the trophy-deer-head removed from the burning Echo cottage. Meeks bay Tahoe, circa 1960.
The cabin, after the fire, designed to resemble the Roy Shurtleff’s cabin at Homewood, Lake Tahoe.
Then in January 1961 a real tragedy struck the family. As Gene so sadly reports:
A few days after Christmas, following unexplained headaches, Rose collapsed at home. She was rushed by ambulance to Merritt Hospital in Oakland, where tests indicated an “inoperable congenital aneurysm”. The Family united immediately in an all out effort to save Rose’s life. Lawton, Nancy and I met with our good friend and highly respected Dr. Albert Rowe, Jr. who suggested calling in another old friend, Dr. John Adams, an eminent neurosurgeon at the University of California Hospital in San Francisco. Dr. Adams immediately recommended surgery provided Rose could be moved to U.C. Hospital. That night I accompanied Rose in the ambulance to San Francisco, and the next day Dr. Adams performed an eight hour surgical procedure, successfully removing the aneurysm. Tragically, severe damage already had been done. Dr. Adams felt that the best hope for recovery would be through intensive therapy combined with active personal attention. Hope and faith were strong from devoted friends and from the family. For six months a friend or family member visited Rose each day as Nancy Miller, Bobbie Shurtleff, Barbara Franklin and Betty Hamilton organized a visiting routine. With Rose unable to talk and the difficulty she had communicating I thought it would be too traumatic for Christine to visit her mother. By then, Bob had left school and was in San Diego in the U.S. Navy, Kathie was at Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C. and Christine, only 11 years old, was at home with our devoted housekeeper, Arlene Tibbets. I was able to be at the hospital with Rose each day at meal time. Often Dad and Mabel would visit the hospital on Sunday and then take me to lunch nearby. With hope of assisting in her recovery, Dr. Adams performed additional surgery, but in vain as Rose finally succumbed. Her valiant battle was lost to pneumonia on 2 June, 1961 having reached the age of only forty three.
Memorial services with friends and family were held in the Gothic Chapel at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, and interment was in the new Shurtleff family niche there in the Columbarium. Roy Shurtleff had used this occasion to purchase this niche (section 14, niche #2, tier #3) on 10 June 1961 for his descendants (see p. 252.)
After a time Gene began to resume some social activities. Friends were attentive, inviting him for dinner and matching him with various single ladies. He was really not interested in any of the proposed matches, but from time to time he would see Betty Hamilton who was one of Rose’s oldest friends, a sorority sister in the Kappa house, and who had visited Rose often while she was hospitalized. After several months it seemed clear to both of them that theirs was a relationship that was meant to be and they casually discussed marriage. With the family scattered far and wide, it was not the time to set a date or make an announcement.
But things were about to change for the Shurtleff family. In November 1961 Gene heard from friends, the Votaws, and Christine who was visiting them, that they planned to spend the Christmas holidays skiing in Selva val Gardenia, a small village in the Italian Alps. They suggested that maybe Gene would like to join them for the celebration and a bit of skiing. He was delighted, and suggested that they include Kathie for a family reunion and celebrate Christmas together. Kathie left Mt. Vernon School, and they met in New York and flew on to Rome. The family was reunited in a wonderful Alpine ski resort on Christmas Eve. Gene remembered that on the first night the girls questioned him about his social life and whom he had been seeing. When he admitted he had seen a bit of Betty Hamilton, reminding them of her close friendship to their mother, they suggested innocently, “Why don’t we invite her to spend New Years with all of us in Rome?” Soon a carefully worded invitation was sent by Western Union Telegraph to Betty in San Francisco. As Betty tells the story “The phone rang and a Western Union operator asked me if I was sitting down.” The invitation was read over the phone.
Fortunately, Betty had been abroad earlier in the year, so she had her passport and was up-to-date for spontaneous travel. Her family all approved, and she was able to get an airline ticket on Pan American to arrive in Rome Friday, December 29. She met Gene, Kathie, and Christine at the airport in Rome. On New Year’s Eve, walking back from dinner, all together, Christine and Kathie said, “Why don’t you two get married here in Rome while all of us are here together?” Well, why not indeed, but how could it possibly be arranged? Surely it would take a miracle.
But the miracle had already begun: Christie had been attending the American Episcopal Church in Rome where she had met the minister, Reverend William Woodhams. He had recognized Christie’s Shurtleff name from, of all places, his own vacation home at Echo Lake. It was a delightful and helpful introduction.
The miracle was complete when Reverend William Woodhams explained to Betty, the bride-to-be, that he was married to a Margaret Coleman, one of Betty’s friends, whose family owned the cabin on upper Echo Lake not far from the Shurtleffs’ cabin on the channel. All the arrangements were made and they had their legally required civil service ceremony, 2 January 1962. Fortunately there was a photographer present to record the happy event.
Although Monday was New Year’s Day in Rome, Betty and Gene were making plans. While Betty went to have her hair done, Kathie and Gene went down the street from the Boston Hotel to Bulgari at the foot of the Spanish Steps where he was able to find a gold wedding band. The only one available was a sample, but it was the right size and is the ring Betty wears on her left hand to this day. The church wedding took place as arranged at the Episcopalian Church on 3 January 1962 with the Reverend Woodhams presiding. What a small world indeed! It was an impressive ceremony befitting the occasion. Betty was born on 28 August 1918 in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Noble Hamilton (1888-1941) and Elizabeth Bull (1893-1977), both of San Francisco, California.
On 3 January 1962 the San Francisco Chronicle reported “Surprise Nuptials in Rome… It will come as a pleasant surprise to the friends of Miss Betty Hamilton to learn that she and Eugene Shurtleff of Orinda were married yesterday in Rome.” The San Francisco Examiner reported later the same day” Shurtleff-Hamilton vows… Surprise wedding in Rome… First Romantic Surprise Of 1962 is supplied by Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Hamilton and Eugene A. Shurtleff who were married yesterday in Rome…”
Back home in Orinda, life began to return to normal. With no children in the house, Betty continued work at Hertert Laboratory in San Francisco, commuting with Gene each day. In June 1962 they attended Kathie’s graduation from Mt. Vernon, and later welcomed her home to Orinda with a family party in the garden around the swimming pool. In August, Christine also returned to the family and was welcomed similarly with a cousins’ party of Shurtleffs and Hamiltons. With the home full of young people, Betty decided to retire with 20 years of service from the Hertert Laboratory to give full-time attention to the home and the duties of a stepmother.
Continuing his father’s tradition of service to the securities industry and his community, Gene was elected a director of the San Francisco Bond Club in 1963. In the same year he succeeded Roy as director of the San Francisco Civic Light Opera Association. There was also time to relax and enjoy his new life together with Betty.
On 28 June 1967 they sold their elegant Orinda home for $123,500 and moved into a furnished rental apartment at 1998 Broadway in San Francisco. A month later, on 18 October 1967, they purchased a condominium apartment (tt 1402) at 1070 Green Street in San Francisco, for $90,000. It ‘vas on Russian Hill, not far from Roy and Mabel Shurtleff’s home and certainly closer to Gene’s office than his Orinda commute. The move to San Francisco was a welcome return for Betty and a delight for Gene.
In March 1969 under the legal agreement worked out years before, Gene purchased the remaining one-half interest in the Echo Lake cabin from Lawton and Bobbie for $15,000. If the price seemed low, it is because the cabin is on government land leased from the U. S.. As a tender remembrance of their Echo Lake days, Lawton took away only the old rowboat—and Gene and Betty were sole owners of the cabin.
In January 1970 the board of directors of Blyth & Co. entered into a merger agreement with INA Corporation, effectively spelling the end of Blyth. Gene had enjoyed a hugely successful career with Blyth, but times were changing in the investment banking business.
On 10 November 1970 Gene and Betty purchased a vacation cottage near the beach in Carmel, California, as a weekend retreat from their apartment in San Francisco.
On 20 October 1977, Gene was elected to membership in the prestigious Bohemian Club, joining Camp Cool Nazdar.
No longer active at Blyth, Gene had time to devote to the pursuit of new and charitable activities. He had served on the board of the U.C. Berkeley Foundation since 1971, and as president from 1979 to 1981. He had been elected to the board of directors of the California Academy of Sciences, and he was happy to accept the offer to serve as treasurer of the board of trustees of the Saint Francis Hospital, following once again in the footsteps of Roy who had proceeded him as a trustee for many years. In October 1982, Gene received the Wheeler Oak Meritorious Award from U.C. Berkeley for his leadership role in major fund-raising. In November 1985 he received the University of California Berkeley Foundation Chancellors Award, its highest award, “for devotion to the University and the community.”
Betty and Gene also had more time to pursue other interests and to explore and travel. A trip to the Galapagos Islands in 1973 had stimulated their interest in wildlife and especially bird-watching. The California Academy of Sciences had an excellent travel program and asked Betty to become a member of the travel committee. The University of California had a similar program devoted to cultural and historical interests. They took full advantage of both programs, joining groups traveling from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica, exploring the world’s continents from east to west and sailing all of the great oceans and many of its rivers. Gene’s elegant photograph albums and Betty’s log tell of a total of 50 major trips. Obviously these trips and the many new friendships they created, and old friendships renewed, became an important part of their life together.
The fascinating records of the trips are on the following page.
BETTY AND GENE SHURTLEFF – TRAVEL RECORD AND PHOTO ALBUMS
1961 Rome
1967 Rogue River, RLS 80th Birthday
1968 Portugal, Spain and Paris
1972 Rome revisited, Tunis, Greece
1973 Galapagos Islands
1974 South Pacific, Australia
1975 British Isles
1976 Alaska (land)
1977 Yucutan, Mexico
1978 Baja I, Qualifier
1978 Japan, Bangkok, Singapore, Australia
1979 Sea of Cortez (Baja II)
1979 East Africa
1980 Rogue River II
1980 Panama Canal from S. F. to Miami
1980 China and Australia
1981 Coral Sea, Great Barrier Reef, Australia
1981 South Africa, Okavanaga
1983 Baja Circumnavigation
1983 New England Fall Colors
1984 Olympic Odyssey
1985 Antarctica
1985 Canyons of Time (Arizona, Utah, Col.)
1986 Southern Arizona
1986 Middle Fork of the Salmon River
1986 India
1987 Bay of Fundy, Polaris
1987 Solomom Islands, New Guinea
1988 North Cape, Arctic Circle, Polaris
1989 Costa Rica, Polaris
1990 Alaska /British Columbia
1990 Danube River
1992 Columbia River
1992 Henry’s Fork Fishing
1992 Western Mediterranean
1993 Trinidad, Tobago and Venezuela
1993 North Sea to Hudson Bay, Polaris
1994 Panama-Caribbean, Polaris
1994 London-Lisbon, Polaris
1995 Lewis & Clark
1996 Canada
1996 Wake of the Bounty, Easter Island
1996 Exploring the Great Lakes
1997 Baja
1997 Klondike/ Alaska
1998 Mississippi River
1998 Arabia—Oman to Jordan
There was plenty to occupy their time at their lovely Russian Hill home in San Francisco. They enjoyed the San Francisco Symphony, and Betty was a regular subscriber to the Thursday afternoon series. Betty enjoyed the theater and was a season ticket holder for ACT performances. Through her many activities and membership in the Town and Country Club, she was able to stay in touch with her many friends in the East Bay, Marin County, and San Francisco. Gene was elected to the board of directors of the Pacific Union Club and served as president in 1993-94.
Pictured: Gene and Betty on one of their many fabulous outings, Sweden, July 1988.
Looking to the future, they had committed to the purchase of a Full Life Care Contract and to live in a new facility in San Francisco when completed by the Episcopal Homes Foundation in 1997. They agreed that under the circumstances, a weekend home closer to San Francisco in both time and distance would provide much easier access and more pleasure and use. So in 1990, they offered their Carmel home for sale. At the same time they began to look seriously for a replacement property in Marin County across the bay. Here they found, a delightful three-bedroom home located on Belvedere Lagoon. Swimming, canoeing and gardening were their hobbies there.
Picture: Christmas for Gene and Betty at their home at 1070 Green Street, San Francisco, circa 1970.
Their use of the cabin at Echo Lake ultimately started to decline. All of the family lived quite a long distance away and were unable to share in either the work or the enjoyment. The Echo house was sold in December 1992 to John Scarborough and Paul Valentine, ending the Shurtleff-Miller reign that began in 1949.
Picture: The spectacular Echo Lake that the last of the Shurtleff family reluctantly left in 1992.
Recall that in 1989 they had committed to purchase a “Full Life Care” apartment in a new facility to be called “The Towers” on the corner of Pine and Van Ness in San Francisco. Finally on 2, Dec 1997 they moved into their retirement home. Their new home was secure and comfortable and their furniture fitted nicely as planned. They were with some old friends and with many new friends who gave them a warm welcome and helped them adjust to a new and comfortable style of living.
Gene wrote:
My life has been quite wonderful. My health so far has been excellent. In fact, compared with Lawton and Nance, they say that my eyes, ears and teeth are the best in the family. Even more fortunately, I have had few of the operations that so plague them. As with most others in this extended family my principal exercises have been swimming, walking and hiking. Clean living, a loving wife and good genes all have helped.
Further it was my good fortune to be born in a special part of the world where freedom, beauty, comfort and natural resources exist side by side with opportunity. I am grateful to my ancestors who endured the hardships, but had the desire and capacity to move westward to California. I am thankful for my family and parents, for their love and devotion to teaching and for my education which provided the knowledge over the years to cope with the challenges of the 20th century. My hope is that my own children and posterity will continue in the established traditions of their ancestors.
Gene certainly had done his share. However following a short, but traumatic experience with colon and pancreatic cancer. Gene died in the Towers with all the wonderful and tender medical care they had hoped for. The night Gene died, 9/9/99, was memorable for the dramatic, long, and unusual storm that lit up the skies over the entire Bay Area with lightning and rolling thunder. Lawton reflects often on how sad and scarcely believable it is to recall that Gene, who had always been by far the healthiest of the siblings, was the first to go. He was only 85 years old.
Gene’s ashes are in the Gothic Chapel at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland where, in 1961, Roy had purchased a niche (section 14, niche #2, tier #3,) for his descendants.
Picture: Roy Shurtleff niche inscribed with the names of Rose, Bobbie, Mabel, and now, Gene. Below are Roy’s name and dates. Photo taken 12 September 1999.
Gene and Rose’s children were:
1. Robert Kerner Shurtleff, born on 26 May 1941 in Berkeley, California. In 1962 Bob joined the U. S. Navy for a short time and did not go to college.
Picture: Happy and eager young Bob Shurtleff, oldest of Rose and Gene’s three children, circa 1951.
- His first marriage was to Janice Ellen Taylor on 13 Jan. 1963 in Las Vegas, Nevada. They had one child. They were divorced in September 1963. Sue Ann Shurtleff, born on 24 Oct. 1963. Sue was married on 20 Aug. 1994 to John Barry Moore. They have three children, all born in Fairbanks, Alaska: Taylor Marie Moore, born on 24 Nov. 1995. Jacob Eugene Moore, born on 31 Dec. 1996, and Sarah Ann Moore, born on 14 March 1999.
- Bob’s second marriage was to Barbara Lee Vincent on 28 Dec. 1964 in Reno, Nevada. They had one child: Kenneth Kerner Shurtleff, born on 14 Aug. 1965 in Reno, Nevada. Ken married Cyndi LeAnn Beyer on 23 May 1987 in Boise, Idaho. Born on 23 July 1965 in San Pablo, California, she was the daughter of Gilbert Earl Beyer and Karen L. Linschoten. In 1990 they moved to Spokane, Washington, then in Jan. 1991 he took a job in San Diego, California. They were divorced in Jan. 1992. Ken married again, to Sue Brown on 23 Dec. 2003 in Las Vegas.
- Bob married a third time, to Barbara Jean (Zane) Hayes in Carson City, Nevada. They had one child: Sidra Rose Shurtleff, born on 10 Dec. 1970 in Sacramento, California.
- Bob married a fourth time to Elenor Fay Soderstrom on 26 April 1975 in Dallas, Texas. They lived a life in Texas devoted to the Christian faith. They had one child: Robert Eugene Shurtleff, born on 2 Feb. 1977 in Dallas, Texas. Their family also lived in Boulder, Colorado, from 1992 to 1994 with Bob and Elenor’s two children. Elenor engaged in many wonderful handicrafts that she sold, and she worked part-time at Shining Mountain Waldorf School as an assistant handicraft teacher. Robert Eugene married Linda Camile Holmquist on 27 Sept. 1997 in Eagle Bend, Minnesota. She was born on 31 Dec. 1976 in Browerville, Minnesota. They had one child: Nathaniel David Shurtleff, born on 11 Jan. 1999 at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Although Bob and Elenor divorced in 1994, Elenor continues to be a dear friend to Bob, sending him cards and gifts on his birthday.
- Bob married a fifth time to Doxie Mace on 20 May 1995. They moved to Richland, Texas, to a five-acre ranch where they raised, bred, and sold (mainly via their Internet website) Catahoula dogs, and goats. They took great pride in their new business. They had no children.
On 18 April 2000 Bob had a major stroke while driving a car. Doxie grabbed the wheel to prevent an accident, then rushed him to a hospital. The stroke left Bob paralyzed on his right side and unable to walk, speak, read, or write. He spent a short time in the Veterans Administration hospital. Doxie cared for him at their ranch during the critical period of time when he was unable to eat on his own. Kathie and Christie went to Texas to find the situation overwhelming for Doxie and Bob. Realizing Bob’s obvious wish to leave this situation, Kathie and Christie transferred him in Jan. 2002 to an assisted living home in Boulder, Colorado, where his needs could be met. Kathie, who lives in Boulder, oversees his care. Bob and Doxie were divorced on 2 Oct. 2002. (Update non in book – Bob died mother’s day weekend in 2009).
Throughout Bob’s life, his father Gene took great financial care of Bob’s children and gave loving support to each. Betty and Gene hosted them on many occasions and took tremendous interest in their lives.
2. Kathleen Shurtleff was born on 22 June 1942 in Berkeley, California. In 1965 she graduated from USC in southern California with a BA in social sciences. She taught first grade in the Watts area of Los Angeles and tutored high school in reading while working on her teaching credential. In 1971 she received a California teaching credential from USC.
Shortly afterward, she moved to Melbourne, Australia, a country looking for teachers from all over the world. From 1971 to 1978 Kathie taught in various elementary schools in Melbourne. She married Andrew Peter Armitage on 9 March 1974 in Melbourne. He was born in Melbourne on 19 June 1943.
They had two daughters:
Ashleigh Elizabeth Armitage was born on 1 Feb. 1978 in Melbourne, Australia. She graduated from the Shining Mountain Waldorf School, where she was a student for 12 years. She became an accomplished flute player and has a beautiful singing voice. She went on to college in Fort Collins, Colorado State University. She graduated with a B.S. in Human Development and Family Services. After graduation she started teaching dressage and horsemanship at her old stomping grounds, the Joder Arabian Ranch. Ashleigh has many students, young and old and is fortunate to be doing something that she really loves.
Kirna Shurtleff Armitage was born on 20 Sept. 1979, in Melbourne, Australia. Kirna graduated from the September School after attending the Shining Mountain School for 8 years. Kirna studied for two and a half years in California and Colorado State University before becoming a bookkeeper for a construction firm in Boulder. Kirna is a fine artist, working in clay and water colors. She played the violin for many years. Kirna hopes to return to college, she is interested in studying law.
Peter and Kathie were divorced in Sept. 1982. Kathie returned to the U. S. in June of that year. She went to live near her sister, Christie, in Boulder, Colorado. In 1982 she purchased a home on 16th Street, where she lives to this day. From 1983 to 1987, Kathie first taught and then directed Alaya Preschool, a Buddhist school for children founded in the mid-1970s by her sister, Christie, and many others in Boulder’s large Buddhist community, centered around the Tibetan Buddhist master Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche.
In 1987 Kathie moved her employment to the Shining Mountain Waldorf School in Boulder, a fledgling four-year-old school based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the great Austrian mystic, educator, social philosopher, healer, and founder of anthroposophy and biodynamic gardening. During these first four years, Kathie was very much involved in helping to establish this school, as part of a worldwide movement to create such schools, which Kathie found philosophically and educationally inspiring. She secured a job as bookkeeper, enrollment coordinator, and events coordinator, in the administrative office. Through these positions she was able to help build this new school to one that thrives today. She retired on 31 July 1994.
Since 1987 Kathie and her two daughters have owned horses and were serious students of dressage, “the execution by a trained horse of precision movements in response to barely perceptible signals from its rider.” This activity, together with Kathie’s work and her children’s attendance in the Waldorf community, created a strong foundation for their life together as a family.
Kathie after her wedding in Melbourne, Australia, 1972.
In 1995 Kathie started a business in her kitchen named the Bath Garden. She made lotions, bath salts, creams, and bath oils for people and horses using natural ingredients and essential oils, and sold them to stores in Colorado, California, Oregon, and Utah. This business involved Kathie for many years in the study of the healing properties of flowers and plants, which then led to a three-year study of homeopathy in the late 1990s. Her interest was in researching the healing benefits of nonallopathic remedies, which were beneficial to her family and friends.
As of this writing, Kathie is semiretired, making Bath Garden products for her family and friends, finding homeopathic remedies for those who request it, and working part-time as a bookkeeper for various people. She oversees her brother Bob’s care. On occasion, Kathie has been able to offer her talents in interior design to various institutions and friends’ homes.
3. Christine Shurtleff was born on 20 Oct. 1949 in Berkeley, California.
During a childhood trip to Japan, after the death of Christie’s mother in 1961, a deep instinct compelled Christie to kiss the Great Buddha of Kamakura three times, marking the moment she became a Buddhist. It was seven years later that she learned to meditate, starting a daily practice of zazen (sitting meditation) with Zen master Suzuki roshi.
After studying at U. C. Berkeley and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Christie moved to Boulder, Colorado, in 1971 to study with Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, the great Tibetan Buddhist meditation master and artist.
Christie married John Joseph Baker on 17 Dec. 1972 in Boulder, Colorado. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on 13 Sept. 1944.
They bought a house at 2436 Seventh St. in Boulder.
Christie and John had one child: Cara Rose Sherap Baker was born on 26 Dec. 1973 in Boulder, Colorado. Cara married Vajra John Rich in Nov. 2001. Born on 14 Sept. 1971 in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, he was the son of Thomas Rich and Irene Zimmerman. Their daughter, Stella Rose Rich, was born on 1 March 2002 at home on Vashon Island, Washington.
Christie and John separated in 1981 and were formally divorced in the spring of 1985.
Over the next 17 years, Christie trained under Rinpoche in both Buddhism and Shambhala—a path of secular wisdom. She entered into one to three months of solitary meditation retreat each year, and worked closely with Rinpoche teaching weekly classes, vajrayana sadhana and seminary courses, Shambhala Training levels, and meditation intensives at Naropa University. In 1971 she began to work for the Vajradhatu administration and served in a variety of capacities for the next 32 years. While John worked with Rinpoche to found Naropa University, John and Christie also helped to start Alaya Preschool and Vidya School, which Cara and her many close friends attended, creating a close-knit second-generation Buddhist community. Christie’s last official administrative post was executive director of Shambhala Training International, from which she resigned in 2003.
In 1987, Christie moved to Nova Scotia, Canada, designated by Rinpoche as a special place where the principles of peace, prosperity, and sustainability could be established for the benefit of the world in the years to come. Christie married Paul Cashman (born on 2 July 1952) on 21 June 1988 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They lived together with Cara and Paul’s daughter Andrea, age seven. In 1992, when Cara attended Boston University’s School of Music as a vocalist, the Cashman’s built a new home in the woods near Lake Hubley; its design and location were based on the principles of feng shui. During these years, Christie also studied and practiced family and civil meditation and took up gardening intensively.
In 2000, Christie was appointed by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche (the son of Trungpa Rinpoche) as an Acharya. In this capacity, she travels continually to offer Buddhist and Shambhala dharma programs, refuge and bodhisattva vows, and personal instruction to students throughout the world.
In 2002, Paul and Christie moved to Halifax to 6265 Oakland Rd.
(Top) Gene, Arlene, Cara, Kathie, Bob, Elenor, Ken and Sue.
(Bottom) Ashleigh, Kirna, Bobby, Cyndi, Curtis.
Vista Point, Marin County, California, September 1986
Webmaster’s notes (Bobby):
Arlene & Curtis are Elenors children from previous marriage.
Cyndi was Ken’s wife.
Not pictured: Christie (Gene’s daughter) & Siddra (Bob’s 3rd child)
Shurtleff & Lawton Families Genealogy & History - Second Edition (2005) 