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June 12, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels March 1, 2004 Man who saw history shares with seniors By Myles Murphy Ashland Daily Tidings The line between history and memory is blurred for Ashland writer Kurt Hartmann, who has lived through events about which most have merely read. Hartmann's experiences span pre-war Europe to naval maneuvers in the Pacific; sparring through a college newspaper with Coretta Scott - before she became Coretta Scott King; and meeting and photographing such luminaries as Bobby and John Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt. Many of his memories - and the insights gleaned from a life well-spent - are contained in a collection of stories Hartmann has written and shared with members of a seniors' writing group on the Southern Oregon University campus. "I'm a storyteller," Hartmann said. "It was in my bones." The tales are captivating, as is Hartmann's life story. He was born in Passau, Bavaria in 1926, and left for America with his family at the age of 12 in 1938. "Literally half a step before the beginning of the terror for Jews," Hartmann said. Of his relatives who remained in Europe, "Nine (aunts and uncles) and their families vanished from the face of the earth," he said. "That's something you don't get over." With one month of summer camp to build a basis for learning English, Hartmann plunged into high school in New York. After graduation, he signed on to serve in the armed forces, expecting his knowledge of German and France to land a post in Europe, perhaps as a translator. Instead, he was sent to the Pacific Theater and assigned to a PT boat squadron in the same neighborhood as a young John Fitzgerald Kennedy. His experiences there were fodder for more stories, and after two years, Hartmann brought his vessel back to the mainland, landing in Astoria to decommission the boat. That was his first taste of Oregon. "I have this romantic hope that my PC 1136 is still at anchor," Hartmann said. Five years of college at Antioch, Ohio, left Hartmann with a taste for journalism, and he ended up working for papers in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and even did a stint as labor reporter of U.S. News & World Report. In the course of time, Hartmann, his first wife and a friend took off on a cross-country road trip for the West Coast to start a newspaper. "After 3,000 miles, we were ragamuffins," he said. Eventually, the trio took over a print shop on the Monterey Peninsula and turned it into a newspaper. Twelve years and a second wife later, the print shop was sold and Hartmann was bumming around Europe in a VW van with his new wife. "In a tunnel in Yugoslavia, we shook hands and agreed to start a bookstore," Hartmann said. All in all, Hartmann started and sold three businesses before retiring to Ashland. "I think [starting and selling ventures] was the only thing I ever did really well," he said. In between business dealings, Hartmann had found time to visit the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. When he was ready to settle for a final time, Ashland was an easy pick. "We liked the community, the intellectual atmosphere," Hartmann said. "The city is run in a way that it shows that they care. The city looks after its people." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams