Ronald Stuart Hartwick
Died December 1, 2009
Ron Hartwick spent his career in tax law, insurance and financial services, but his widow Kathy says “his profession was children and his service to community.”
After he graduated summa cum laude in 1965, Ron stayed in New Haven and earned his law degree from Yale and then a master’s in education. Ron returned to Los Angeles and taught math in the inner city. He spent decades serving on school and church boards, specifically as a member of the board of trustees of the Harvard Westlake School and the John Thomas Dye School and the Diocesan Investment Trust of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Ron’s dedication to education started long before he had children of his own.
He didn’t start raising a family until after he met Kathy in 1987. It was a blind date, Kathy recalls, “my one and only blind date.” All three children, Charlie, Michael, and Molly, went to Harvard Westlake and John Thomas Dye as their father had done. They all played sports – soccer, volleyball, swimming , water polo, and Ron frequently served as team coach. Ron himself was a low handicap golfer.
Ron practiced law for 15 years with Lillick, McHose & Charles, one of Los Angeles’ largest law firms, becoming chairman of its Tax Department. He branched out into insurance and financial services as executive vice president with U.S. Trust Company of California and later as president of Crambit and Carney and then as president of Fiduciary Trust International. He eventually formed his own financial services company, Trapani, Hartwick Associates, where he was principal managing partner. Ron died very suddenly on December 1, 2009.
Robert Krintzman remembers: Roommate and good friend for 50 years. Great gin rummy player, as I discovered in my first month on the Old Campus (after which I stopped playing gin forever)! Good times, classical sophomoric road trips. I remember a practical joke Sam Kusic and I played on Ron. He had just finished a term paper in record time and, somewhat smugly, told us he was going out to dinner or a movie or something, leaving this imposing paper on his desk. After he left, we put the paper in his desk, replicated the title/cover page and stapled it to 25 blank pieces of paper and burned it in half, leaving the charred remains on his desk. When he returned and found the remains, he turned red (and possibly purple) and it took us a few minutes to calm him down. Gotcha! Ron, you will always be well-remembered by your friends.
Samuel Kusic remembers: We were room mates for three years and we kept in touch especially on our birthdays and around Christmas. He was a great friend, husband and father. The world would be a better place if he were still with us. I have fond memories of the times we shared and think of him often.