Ollie Hamlin
Ollie was born and raised in Piedmont and remembered visiting his grandfather’s ranch in Lafayette during the summer and Easter vacations where he learned to milk cows and shoot rifles.
In 1940, Ollie’s father built a house on the original Hamlin Ranch at the top of the hill going toward Rheem and called it Sky Hy. The Lafayette Horse Show was originally held on the Hamlin ranch for about ten years from 1932 to 1942.
Ollie remembers riding his horse to The Curve restaurant. Other memories include the Roundup and attending the opening of the Park Theater around 1940. His father was instrumental in changing the names of what were then Oakland Street, Commercial Street and Jonas Hill to Moraga Road.
After graduating from Stanford University in 1942, Ollie went into the Navy until 1946. He was the radar officer on the USS Farragut, a destroyer that escorted battleships and small carriers in the Aleutians.
In 1947 Ollie earned an MBA from UC Berkeley. Later he and his wife Virginia lived in a home they built on five acres of land given to them by his father on Old Jonas Hill Road.
After the war, Ollie was in sales before getting his real estate license in 1960. He had a real estate office at 3370 Mt. Diablo Blvd. for more than twenty years. He managed real estate projects in Antioch, building a neighborhood shopping center, and managed family property in South San Francisco.
His recollections of Lafayette in earlier times made him an invaluable member of the Association where he had served as President of the Board and more recently Corresponding Secretary. He is missed!
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