Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Saturday, August 19, 2006 at 04:57:56 :
San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, July 31, 2002
Section A, page 20
SEARLS, Fred, III
SEARLS, Fred, III - Age 78, a resident of Rheem Valley Convalescent Hospital in Moraga, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease on June 29, 2002. Mr. Searls was born in San Francisco, the son of Fred Searls, II, an exploration geologist who became board chairman of Newmont Mining Corporation, and Gwynne Davis Searls. Mr. Searls attended schools in New York and California, graduating from Lowell High School in San Francisco. He joined the Army during World War II and served in the western Pacific as an aircraft mechanic. In 1944 he and his older brother Robert married sisters, Doris and Ethel Green. After the war Mr. Searls earned a bachelor's degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master's degree in engineering at the University of Connecticut. He began his career as an aircraft engineer at Pratt & Whitney. In 1958, Mr. Searls joined the maintenance division of United Airlines in San Bruno, and moved his family to Hillsborough. In the early 1970s he served as a liaison to the Boeing Corporation, helping United acquire the new Boeing 727 and 747 airliners. At the time of his retirement in 1979, Mr. Searls was engineering chief of United's maintenance base at San Francisco Airport. Mr. and Mrs. Searls were avid weekend sailors, racing their Farallon Clipper, "Mistress II", in San Francisco Bay. They were members of St. Francis Yacht Club of San Francisco, the Yacht Racing Association, and Coyote Point Yacht Club of San Mateo. In 1979 Mr. and Mrs. Searls moved to Nevada City, becoming the 4th generation of the family to live in the residence of California Supreme Court Chief Justice Niles Searls (1887-1889). Mr. Searls joined the board of directors of the Miners Hospital in Nevada City and the Sierra Nevada Hospital in Grass Valley. He also volunteered as a docent at the Empire Mine State Historical Park, a gold mine that had been acquired for Newmont Mining by Mr. Searls's father. Mr. Searls is survived by his brother Robert Searls of Melbourne, Australia; sisters Phoebe Searls True of Ross, Helen Searls deGroot of Chicago, Illinois, and Joyce Adams Searls of Phippsburg, Maine; children Gwynne L. Searls of Lafayette, Fred Searls, IV of Sausalito, Emily Searls of San Ramon; and two grandchildren. The family requests that contributions be made to the Nevada County Historical Society in Nevada City.
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