Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 04:23:55 :
Independent Journal
Monday, December 5, 1977
Death Takes Herbert Rowland Sr.
Herbert Rowland Sr., fifth-generation Marinite and master of the gracious Pacheco Mansion opposite Hamilton Air Force Base, died this morning in his home after a long illness. He was 66.
Rowland was a retired manager for the freight division of American President Lines, and most recently was becoming widely known for the wine grapes he raised on the acreage surrounding his 97-year old family home.
The two-story Victorian frame house, surrounded by towering trees, was built in 1880 by Rowland’s grandfather, Gumesindo Pacheco. Rowland’s great-grandfather, Ignacio Pacheco, founded in 1834 the Rancho San Jose, a 6,600-acre domain that took in what is now Ignacio, Hamilton Air Force Base and much of Novato.
Ignacio Pacheco was an alcalde – civil judge – who presided in San Rafael and elsewhere north of the Golden Gate before the Americans took over California. The family has been prominent in Marin’s history throughout the decades, with Gumesindo Pacheco serving as county supervisor from 1902 until he died in 1916.
Rowland lived much of his life overseas after joining the Robert Dollar Co., American President Lines’ predecessor, in 1931. It was in Shanghai that he met his future wife, Frances Rowland, who was on a world tour with her parents. They lived overseas until they returned to Marin in 1951, and they moved into the Pacheco mansion in 1965, following the death of Rowland’s mother, Abigail.
In addition to his widow, Rowland is survived by a son, Herbert Jr., an attorney living in Novato, and a daughter, Agnes Ann Meves, of Sacramento.
The funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Keaton’s Mortuary, San Rafael, followed by burial in Bahia Valley Memorial Park, Novato.
|
powered by SpudBoard |