Tribute to Charles F. McNamee

TRIBUTE TO CHARLES F. MCNAMEE -- (Extensions of Remarks - January 20, 2004)

SPEECH OF HON. ZOE LOFGREN OF CALIFORNIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2004

Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, Charles F. McNamee was born on January 11, 1911 in the old O'Conner Hospital in San Jose, California. His family had to travel there for the birth because it was the closest hospital to their farm in Hollister 50 miles away. His Irish mother, Agnes Hudner, was born on her family's ranch in Hollister in 1871. His father, Charles, was born in 1874 in Ireland and was brought to the United States at the turn of the century to work as a haberdasher in Hollister. Charlie's uncle John was married to Molly Breen, daughter of Patrick Breen of the ill fated "Donner Party". James Hudner, his grandfather, came to the United States after the potato famine in Ireland. He settled in Hollister by purchasing his land from Col. Hollister in 1868.

Charlie attended Hollister's Sacred Heart Elementary School in the fall of 1916 and later graduated high school there with a class size of eight! He attended Santa Clara University in 1928. There he was able to meet many founders of local industry and government. Dutch Hamann, eventually city manager and largely responsible for the evolution of San Jose from 1950-1969, and was a close friend at the University. It was Dutch who advised him many years later to move to Almaden Valley "as fast as you can" when Charlie's three children evolved to four and outsized his small home in Santa Clara. Vincent Thomas, elected to the California assembly in 1940, was his roommate for his last two years at Santa Clara. Charlie lived in an era that allowed tutoring by Fr. Cornelius J. McCoy, president of the University. Tuition was a "steep" $400 per semester (including room & board), but being the depression era, he got a half scholarship working in the board of athletic control as a typist. He graduated with a B.S. in Political Economics in May 1933.

After graduation he returned shortly to Hollister to work at the Grangers grocery as a delivery boy until about July 1934. Sounds like a meager job after a college education, but these were hard times where jobs, graduate or not, were just not available. With hay fever and asthma, he soon decided that ranch life was not to his liking and moved to San Jose taking a mail clerk job at Sunsweet Growers (where the Fairmont hotel currently resides). He switched to Western Pacific in the fall of 1940 with a job as a stenographer clerk and a year later transferred to the Western Pacific Main Office in the Mills Building on Montgomery Street in San Francisco.

He resigned Western Pacific in May 1942 to accept a commission as Lieutenant Junior Grade in the U.S. Naval Reserve at the bottom of Broadway in Oakland, California. In San Diego he was assigned to the Port Director's office.

Commander Earnest transferred him to the Fleet Post office on Navy pier in San Diego. In 1943 he became Officer in charge of the Fleet Post Office at Terminal Island near San Pedro. In the fall of 1944 he was transferred to 7th Amphibious Force in the South Pacific on board the USS Henry T. Allen as Postal Officer. He was later promoted to Lieutenant Commander. After the war subsided, he returned to Pearl Harbor in December 1945 and was honorably discharged.

In 1946 he returned home to Hollister. After reminiscing with some Navy buddies down south, he returned to Sunsweet eventually becoming their Traffic Manager.

On October 26, 1946 he married Genevieve Washburn at the old St. Leo's church and began the first year of a fifty-three year marriage. He had three daughters and a son. His Catholic faith saw him assist with the building of three local churches: St. Justin's, Holy Spirit and St. Anthony's. He first settled in Campbell, moved to Santa Clara in 1952 with the arrival of a son and then to Almaden Country Club in 1961 after the arrival of his 3rd daughter and final child.

He was diagnosed with cancer in 1972 and given a few months to live by his doctor at O'Conner hospital. The tumor was too large to remove so no operation was performed. He retired immediately from Sunsweet. With faith and an herbal remedy, the tumor diminished and he soon returned to good health. He then got interested in the "Sons in Retirement" (SIRS) and held several positions there including the CEO post called "Big Sir". In 1996 he received an honorary life membership for his work.

Charlie began to enjoy golf at Almaden as a charter member when his children entered adolescence but had to wait until his 80th year to score his first hole-in-one. Ironically he had his second one a decade later at 90 years of age! Charlie still drives, plays golf three times a week, and leads a very active life at 93 years of age.

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