Herbert Morley Chase

Born in Oxnard, California on April 7, 1928, the youngest son of Glywn and Ruth Chase, Morley grew up in a family business that would include dairy, farming and oil production and processing operations known as Chase Bros. Dairy and Oxnard Refinery. A 1946 graduate of Nordoff High School, Morley attended Ventura College and transferred to Claremont Men’s College where he earned a degree in economics. Upon graduating in 1950, he was drafted into the army and stationed in Washington DC as an MP, assigned, in his words, “to defend the arsenal of democracy” during the Korean War.

In 1953, Morley began his career in the oil business working as the plant supervisor for Edgington Oxnard Refinery, a business his family held in partnership with Ralph Edgington. For the next sixty years, Morley vigorously exercised his privilege to work in the oil and asphalt industry in California as an independent and an innovator.

Morley loved the air and the sea. He started sailing in his youth with his cousins; Vern and Don Edler on family vacations to Newport Beach. In 1955, Morley raced in his first of three Transpac races aboard the Odyssey, owned and skippered by his lifelong friend, Richard (Dick) Steele. In that same year he bought the Navion from a fellow sailor in Newport and flew it to where it is still hangered today at the Oxnard FBO. The following year, he met the greatest of his loves, his wife Lee. They married on a trip to Las Vegas in 1963 and lived in Camarillo until they moved to Carpinteria in 1973. Over the fifty years of their marriage, they were boat partners and best friends with Morgan and Mary Morgan in the “Bristol Fashion”, a Grand Banks 32, and the “Joy”, a Cal 2-46.

Morley’s greatest gift was his natural ability to befriend anyone and nearly everyone. While he could be tough and bawdy, he was more often gentle and kind. He put his heart out there and he led his life honestly. As someone who lived completely at ease and fully engaged in the hour of the day, he will be fondly remembered by his family and friends for his memory and telling of events. For those of us that loved Morley and appreciated his stories, we will ease our loss by slowing to listen for his voice to echo through our memories of those hours when he shared his life with us.

Morley will be greatly missed by his wife Lee; his daughter Cindy and her husband, Bob Blackman; his daughter Carrie Chase; his daughter Julie and her husband, Patrick McCaslin; and his grandchildren Kirk Blackman and his wife, Wendy; Stacey Blackman; Trevor Blackman and his wife, Jamie; and the newest grandson, Liam Chase McCaslin. The great grandchildren that delighted him; Troy, Kyle, David, Cory, Klari and Bennet are his legacy.

A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, November 23, 2013, 10:30 A.M. at Reality (Church), 5251 6th Street, Carpinteria, CA. A reception will follow to celebrate his life.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Ted Mayr Funeral Home , 3150 Loma Vista Road, Ventura. Condolences may be left at TedMayrFuneralHome.com.