MARTINELLI

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 05:22:09 :

Independent Journal
Monday, January 22, 1979
Page 4

Jordan Martinelli Jr dies at family home

Longtime Marin County civic leader and businessman Jordan L. Martinelli Jr. died Saturday at the family ranch in Bolinas, apparently of a heart attack. He was 54.

Martinelli was found dead in the residence on the ranch by his son Peter.

Martinelli, who had lived in Bolinas the past two years, was vice president of Pacific Coast Title Co. at the time of his death.

He was a lifelong Marin County resident, having been born in Ross. He was the son of the late Marin County Superior Court Judge Jordan L. Martinelli Sr., descendant of pioneers who came west with Fremont’s expedition when California was still under the flag of Mexico.

The junior Martinelli grew up in San Rafael, attending St. Raphael’s Grammar School and St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco. He earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of San Francisco in 1948. He also studied later at the University of California, Davis.

During World War II, he served with the Maritime Service in the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean theaters as a lieutenant aboard ships.

After the war and his studies at Davis, he raised cattle on the family’s Paradise Valley Ranch for several years. During that time he also was a director of the Marin County Farm Bureau.

In 1954 he went to work for the Marin County Savings and Loan Association as assistant manager. He was with that firm, which later became Bell Savings and Loan, as vice president and secretary for 18 years. Before joining Pacific Coast Title, he was with Western Title Guarantee for three years.

Through the years, Martinelli was active in a host of civic affairs. He served as a San Anselmo city councilman from 1959 to 1961 and a Ross town councilman from 1964 to 1967, when he was appointed as a director of t he Marin Municipal Water District.

He served on the water district board, part of the time as president, until 1974, when he did not seek reelection.

He also was a member of the San Rafael Rotary Club, past president of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce, a director of the Marin County Cancer Society and the Marin County Society for Crippled Children.

Surviving are his daughter, Louisa B. Martinelli of San Francisco; three sons, Jordan L. Martinelli III of Cotati, James W. Martinelli of Nicasio and Peter J. Martinelli of Greenbrae; his mother, Genevieve C. Martinelli of Greenbrae; his brother, Roderick P. Martinelli of San Rafael; and two grandsons.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Raphael’s Church in San Rafael. Burial will be in Olema Cemetery. The rosary will be recited at 8 p.m. today at Keaton’s Mortuary in San Rafael.