POLHEMUS, WILLIAMS

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Tuesday, February 03, 2009 at 05:18:40 :

Marin Independent Journal
Tuesday, June 4, 1985

EDWARD R. POLHEMUS

A memorial service for Edward R. Polhemus of Kentfield, a former director of the Department of Motor Vehicles, will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday in the Nobel Chapel at the Cypress Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Colma.

Mr. Polhumus died Sunday at Bayside Convalescent Hospital in Kentfield at 95.

He was born in San Francisco.

Mr. Polhemus attended Lowell High School in San Francisco and Stanford University.

At Stanford, he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

After completing his schooling, for a time he imported coffee from Central and South America.

In 1925, he married Lilliam (sic) Williams, She died in 1975.

While working for the department of Motor Vehicles in Fresno, he designed the vision test for the driver’s license, which was used statewide.

He was the director of the agency in San Francisco during the 1940s and 1950s.

Mr. Polhemus, a descendent of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was a past president of the California division of the Sons of the American Revolution. He also belonged to the Holland Society of New York, the Masonic Lodge in Mill Valley, the California Bodies of the Scottish Rite and the California Historical Society.

In his younger days, Mr. Polhemus was active in yachting, serving as vice commodore of the San Francisco Yacht Club, which was located in Sausalito before moving to Belvedere.

Mr. Polhemus lived in Sausalito intermittently during the 1920s and 1950s.

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