Warren Leonard Hartman

Warren passed away on March 16th just two weeks short of his 90th birthday. He was under care of hospice and his wife and “adopted” grandson Shawn were at his bedside when he “crossed the bar”. Warren was born on March 30, 1931 in Brooklyn, NY to Carl and Ethel Hartman. He was raised in Yonkers, NY where he was active in school band, boy scouts, church youth fellowship and junior rifle club. He attended the State University of NY College of Forestry from 1948 to 1952 and graduated in Forest Management. While in college he was a photo editor of the Camp Log and Yearbook. After his junior year he made his first trip west and spent the summer as a fire lookout and trail crew worker in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area in Montana and after graduation he served as a trail crew foreman. In the fall of 1952 he received an appointment as a forester on the Gunnison National Forest in Colorado. He was drafted into the Army in June 1954 serving until 1956, returning to the Gunnison NF. He served as District Ranger at Pagosa Springs, CO on the San Juan NF; at Steamboat Springs, CO on the Routt NF; and at Salida , CO on the Pike/San Isabel NF. In Steamboat Springs he served on the Winter Sports club board which ran Howelson Ski Hill located in downtown Steamboat. He was also a member of the National Ski Patrol and earned a private pilot license in 1972. In 1976 while at Salida, CO he met and married the love of his life Janice who was the Forest personnel officer. They transferred to Anchorage, AK in 1977 and thus began his interest in boating and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. In 1980 they moved to the Olympic National Forest in Olympia where he was a resource assistant at Shelton than moved to the Forest Headquarters where he served as a coordinator for hydropower project studies and other land jobs. He also served as Information Officer on the Olympic Interagency Incident Command Team. He retired in May 1986 but stayed on the team for several years after retirement. Warren enjoyed helping his neighbors doing odd jobs and tinkering around the house, boat, fifth wheel, car and truck. He spent 56 years as a Lions Club Member in a variety of positions including Zone chairman and earned the prestigious Melvin Jones Fellow Award in 2016, 34 years with the Forest Service, 30 years with the Coast Guard Auxiliary, member of the West Bay Yacht Club, West Bay Literary and Oratorical Society, the South Sound Cruising Club, the Goldcrest HOA board and the local and national King of the Road RV Club. He also volunteered for the whale watching spoken here program at Cape D under the auspices of Oregon/Washington interpretive programs for 15 years. He and Janice continued to travel both nationally and internationally even though he received chemo therapy at least 3 times a month during the last 10 years. He fought hard against all the diseases attacking his body with grace, dignity, strength and perseverance with a lot of wry humor; but eventually he couldn’t beat it anymore.

He is survived by his wife Janice; by his older sister Audrey, of Westerville, OH; her sons Bill (Murielle) of Salt Lake City, UT and their daughter Autumn (Josh) Brielle, Freya of Wooster, OH; and son Scott (Audrey) of Orlando, Florida and their children Kelsey, Sean, Glen; by his younger sister Joan of Staten Island, NY; and by his adopted grandson Shawn Burdett (Shandi) of Olympia, and their children Seaira, Sariah, Shanel.

The family would like to thank Dr. Gary Goin, internal medicine, and Dr. Paul Robertson, oncologist with the Providence Regional Cancer System and their respective staff for the care and professional service they gave him over these many years. They are our heroes.

In lieu of flowers the family requests that you donate to charities that involve research for cancer especially blood cancers like multiple myeloma and leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and heart disease.