Mr. James W. Hamburg

James Wayne Hamburg, age 92, died June 3, 2014 in the Mission Hills home he treasured. He spent his last days listening to swing jazz, talking to his friends and family, telling stories, and looking out the living room window toward the airport and the bay. He had been quite infirm from arthritis but in his own fashion preferred to say he was just slow.

Jim was born in Eustis Nebraska, raised in Marysville, Kansas and was a product of the Volga Deutch migration of the late19th century. He attended Kansas State in Manhattan (not NYC), learned to fly, worked on the railroad, and earned an appointment to the Naval Academy in 1941. Jim felt the expanded horizons of moving from rural Kansas and forced interaction with all classes of society at Annapolis one of the blessings of his life and he never wavered from considering new ideas or people (except home computers, surely a passing fad). He had great affection and respect for his upbringing in Maryville and continued to attend high school reunions there well into his eighties – even bicycling to Marysville from San Diego on several occasions (perhaps his own version of the pilgrimage of St. James – ironic because he was a determined secular humanist). His father had owned a general store in Marysville, Hamburg’s Golden Rule, a reference I believe to tailoring or good value but also to ethics. His sister Patricia attended the University of Nebraska and later developed social programs in San Francisco.

He was predeceased by several years by his wife, Sarah Louise Hamburg (nee Kennedy), whom he met on a train on New Year’s Eve somewhere in the Midwest, each journeying to designations of great personal concern (Chicago, Philadelphia) during the build up to the war. The story is that he caught her glance in the club car, made a spinning motion with his fingers, a hand signal for “do you want to dance.” And so they did, married over 60 years.

After resigning from the Navy (the constant relocation and substandard housing being a deal breaker for him, but not his wife), he received an MBA from Stanford University and began a career in aeronautical engineering in California which included Ryan Aeronautical and Aerojet General. They raised a son and a daughter in the local school system, participating in the extracurricular activities of sports and drama respectively. Having seen San Diego during Navy relocations during wars (including the Korean War) and

noticing the significant climatic advantages over the Midwest they decided to stay. Somewhat contrary to this love of San Diego, Jim took numerous bicycle trips across the country and across the world: Tecate to Cabo San Lucas several times, Seattle Washington to Portland Maine, John o’Grouts to Lands End (England), southeast coast of Australia, and both islands of New Zealand. Slide shows of these trips were well attended but the future of these slide shows are threatened by the declining availability of projector bulbs.

Jim and Sal became politically engaged in the creation of open space park land in the canyons that separate the fingers of streets that crest the Mission Hills, dealing with the legal motions, board meetings, petitions and lobbying necessary and they were successful. The politics settled, Jim spent a substantial portion of his remaining life rebuilding stone walls without mortar (known as dry set masonry), cactus gardening, and general outdoor things (to the benign neglect of the house). He was surprised to learn he had been awarded a Preservation Award for his efforts by Mission Hills Heritage – he had just been doing what was natural – but appreciated the opportunity to lobby for the canyon.

He told everyone he was a vegetarian but you could hide bacon in the recipe somewhere and he would wonder why it tasted so good. Jim was involved in and with the Sierra Club (the Mavericks, of course), Navy veterans (the Army Navy game at the Admiral Kidd club), Knickerbikers, Skeptics, PFLAG, the Dixieland Jazz Society (he attended all four days of the Dixieland Jazz extravaganza during Thankgiving to the chagrin of family members who might have wanted his attendance at a more traditional family thanksgiving). He was member number 4 of the San Diego Memorial Society (aka the Hemlock Society) which now numbers many thousands. Jim developed close friends from many walks of life: daily interactions, house improvements, long distance bicycle trips, but most importantly a love and appreciation of the basic acts of life.

Immediate family survivors include Geoffrey Wayne Hamburg and wife Jo Ann Hamburg, and grandchildren Cambria Greer Hamburg (husband Chase Hogle), and Alexandra Emery Hamburg (from a prior marriage to Jean Emery); and Kasey Sarah Hamilton (daughter of Paula Louise Hamilton, deceased). The Kennedy families, co-joined with the Hamburgs by holiday traditions and lives together include George Kennedy (deceased) and his wife Janet, son Martin and his wife Shari Kennedy and their sons Dennis

and Drew and daughter Deanna, and son Richard and his wife Kelley, their children Michael and Meghan.

Lessons learned from my father include:

1. Work hard (study, be prepared)

2. Play hard (at whatever suits you and be sure to enjoy it, be gracious in defeat and proud in victory)

3. Be careful (don’t take stupid risks)

4. Do what you want, risks be damned, (but wear a helmet)

Geoffrey Hamburg

June 10, 2014