Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 07:19:33 :
Marin Independent Journal
Tuesday, January 11, 1994
Section B, page 2
BENJAMIN H. HARTWELL
Marin police officer
Private graveside services will be held in Portland, Ore., for Benjamin H. Hartwell, a former boxer and retired policeman.
He died Jan. 4 in Mill Valley. He was 100.
In the 1920s, Mr. Hartwell was a motorcycle riding constable for Sausalito Township, a region that stretched from Tiburon to Stinson Beach.
In the 1930s, he conducted auto traffic for the ferries that took commuters into San Francisco.
He was a Mill Valley policeman for 25 years, from 1939 until1964.
Mr. Hartwell boxed as a young man, once fighting turn-of-the-century champ Gentleman Jim Corbett, apparently without much success.
“You couldn’t hit Corbett with a 10-foot pole,” he once said. “He made you miss him altogether.”
A resident of Marin for 84 years, Mr. Hartwell’s roots in Marin ran deep. His grandfather owned Mason’s Malt Whiskey, which was distilled at Whiskey Springs in Sausalito.
In an interview on the eve of his 100th birthday last year, he attributed his long life to his belief in God and his temperate habits.
“I’ve been a moderate drinker,” he said. “I take a drink but I didn’t feel as if it had any right to me.”
He is survived by a stepson, Stan Orman of San Anselmo, and a sister, Florence Wilson of Santa Rosa.
Mr. Hartwell’s wife of 47 years, Marie, died in 1981. He will be buried in Rose City Cemetery in Portland.
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