[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 27 (Tuesday, February 10, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           IN RECOGNITION OF THE HISTORIC LIFE OF HERB HAMROL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JACKIE SPEIER-

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 10, 2009

  Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, on April 18th, 1906, our beloved city of 
San Francisco experienced an earthquake and fire that devastated all 
but a handful of buildings and resulted in the deaths of more than 
3000. When the temblor struck, at 5:12 a.m. on that spring morning, 
Herbert Heimie Hamrol was just three years old. When he passed away 
last week at the age of 106, Mr. Hamrol had outlived all other male 
survivors.
  Madam Speaker, Herb Hamrol was and continues to be a vital part of 
San Francisco's history. Every year, on the anniversary of the great 
quake, he would rise early and leave his Daly City home in time to 
gather at 5:12 a.m. at Lotta's Fountain with other survivors and well-
wishers. While he remembered little of the actual quake--being just 3 
years old when it happened--Herb was always generous with what memories 
he had.
  ``I remember my mother carrying me down the stairs,'' he told a 
reporter at last year's gathering. He also recalled camping in Golden 
Gate Park while ominous black smoke filled the skies and rubble lay in 
the streets.
  Herb was not just known to the historic-minded. Many San Franciscans 
knew him as the kind and helpful clerk at Andronico's Market on Irving 
Street, not far from his home after the quake, Golden Gate Park.
  Defying his advanced age, Herb Hamrol worked up until a week before 
his death. At 106 years old, he donned an apron and punched a timeclock 
forty years after many had chosen to retire.
  Herb Hamrol was born in San Francisco on January 10, 1903. He left 
school after the 8th grade for a job delivering meat for a butcher. He 
later worked as a phone company clerk and owned his own business--
Herbert's Food Shop at 16th and Geary--for forty years. In 1963, he 
joined Andronico's. Cecilia, the love of his life and wife for forty 
years, died in 1969. He told the Chronicle in 2003 that he kept a 
picture of her in his room and, ``Every morning I say 'good morning' to 
her.''
  At last year's remembrance Mayor Gavin Newsom told the crowd of 350, 
``There is no greater San Franciscan than Herb.''
  Madam Speaker, our city, so many times blessed, was further endowed 
by the many years we were allowed to call Herb our own. Our condolences 
go to his large and loving family, including sons Burt and Bil Hamrol; 
daughter-in-law Carla; grandchildren Michele, Allison, Burt Jr., 
Jennifer and Cecilia; great-grandchildren Lauren, Dustin, Travis, 
Ceidric, Nicholas and Pamela; and great-great-grandchildren Alexis and 
Logan.
  During Herb Hamrol's century-plus life, he witnessed two world wars; 
the invention of television and the computer; the struggle for civil 
rights, women's suffrage and greater equality for all; advancements in 
medicine and science that included heart transplants and wonder drugs 
and putting a man on the Moon. Yet, through it all, Herb kept his 
life--and his advice--simple. When asked by a reporter to share some of 
the wisdom gathered in so many years on Earth, he offered a nugget as 
true today as it was on the day he was born: ``Don't spend every dime 
you get.''

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