Laurence Harge
1916 - 2010
Back in the day, one of the best things you could say about a man was "He knew boats." Laurence Hartge, did indeed know boats. While mourning the passing of this Bay Icon, the Museum Board is glad that was able to enjoy an exhibit about him and his family and their contribution to our maritime heritage that we hosted last year. We offer our condolences to the Hartge family and wish his spirit fair winds and following seas.
Obituary
Laurence's lifelong love of sailing was nurtured by his nautical family, which founded one of the oldest family-owned boatyards on the bay, Hartge Yacht Yard. The son of Oscar and Alice Wayson Hartge, Laurence grew up in Galesville, Maryland. Working in his family's boatyard, he learned the skills that were to shape his future boating life. He was an enthusiastic and competitive racing skipper on the Bay. Laurence joined the Navy in 1940. As a Signalman, he was assigned to a large convoy of ships leaving San Francisco, responding to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He recalled the difficulty of maintaining ship formation due to wartime black-out conditions. He served throughout WWII as a Signalman aboard tankers pumping fuel to ships all over the Pacific theater. After the war, Laurence stayed on the west coast with his wife Anne, building 20 houses in the San Francisco area. Laurence and his family returned to West River in 1952 to rejoin his family boatyard. He took sketches of his ideal cruising sloop to his uncle, E.H. (Dick) Hartge, to help realize his dream. With Dick's guidance, Laurence designed and built the 26' Quadrant. Hartge Yacht Yard built eighteen of the boats, actively racing and cruising the Bay for decades. In 1962, Laurence established Hartge Yacht Sales and Hartge Yacht Insurance. In 1967, he bought Annapolis Yacht Sales and established Hartge-Dahlby Real Estate. Retiring to Siesta Key, Florida in '81, Laurence continued to be active in real estate, as well as competing in the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit. He eventually moved to Fernandina, Florida, and became a docent at the Amelia Island Museum of History. After returning to Annapolis in the late 90s, Laurence realized another dream. As the historian and keeper of family artifacts, he (with his brother Robert Hartge and the help of family friend and designer, Peter Tasi) created the Hartge Nautical Museum, located in the old family home at Hartge Yacht Yard. In 2009, the Annapolis Maritime Museum invited Laurence to create a retrospective exhibition regarding the Hartge family's legacy to the Chesapeake. This extraordinary opportunity brought Laurence's life full circle. Laurence died peacefully at home from complications of cancer. He is survived by a daughter, Dr. Patricia Hartge of Chevy Chase; his cousin and companion, Suzanna Hartge of Annapolis; eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild; step-sons Mark Dahlby of Santa Cruz, CA. and Kim Dahlby of Sarasota, Florida; his brothers Robert L. Hartge of Galesville, Maryland, and Henry (Bill) Hartge of Huntington Beach, California. He was pre-deceased by his son Peter, his former wife Anne Lupo Hartge, and by his wife Virginia Dahlby Hartge. A memorial for Laurence will be held at Christ Episcopal Church, 220 Owensville Road, West River, MD 20778, Saturday, January 23rd at 3 p.m. The reception (immediately following) will be at the old shop at Hartge Yacht Harbor (the original Hartge Yacht Yard) at the end of Church Lane in Galesville, Maryland. We are planning a celebration of Laurence's accomplished life for later in the spring. |
From boat designer and builder, yacht and real estate broker, to founder and director of the Hartge Nautical Museum, Laurence Hartge never strayed far from the water's edge. His paintings reflected his heritage as well as the love of a life on the Chesapeake and beyond. Story in The Capital
Laurence Hartge, sailor, historian
Galesville family patriarch dead at 93
By E.B. FURGURSON III, Staff Writer
Published 01/23/10
Laurence Hartge, who spent a life involved in virtually all aspects of boating - including his family's legendary Galesville boatyard, boat design, racing and lastly maritime history and painting - died Monday at home from complications of cancer. He was 93.
Laurence Hartge, who contributed greatly to the area’s maritime history and his family’s legendary Galesville boatyard, died Monday from complications of cancer. He was 93 years old. He’s shown above at the Annapolis Maritime Museum, which recently exhibited a collection of paintings by Hartge along with memorabilia and photos from his family.
Laurence Hartge, who contributed greatly to the area’s maritime history and his family’s legendary Galesville boatyard, died Monday from complications of cancer. He was 93 years old. He’s shown above at the Annapolis Maritime Museum, which recently exhibited a collection of paintings by Hartge along with memorabilia and photos from his family.>>
His life was spent on or near the water he loved. He grew up in the midst of the Hartge Yacht Yard at the mouth of Lerch Creek on the West River, founded in 1879 by his grandfather, Emile Hartge.
The son of Oscar and Alice Wayson Hartge, he learned the boating craft while working at the family boatyard and sailing the West River and Chesapeake Bay.
He also learned there was but one way to do things: the right way.
"He was my hero," said Totch Hartge, his first cousin, though a generation younger. "It was his character I admired. He was an honorable gentleman. You could count on him to do the right thing."
"He was one of the doers in the family. Once he set his mind to something, he achieved it," he said.
That he did. After joining the Navy in 1940, Laurence Hartge served the duration of World War II as a signalman aboard tanker ships supplying fuel to ships across the Pacific.
He stayed on the West Coast for a number of years after the war, building homes in the San Francisco area, but returned to Galesville and the family boatyard in 1952.
He had dreamed of designing the perfect sailing craft and soon presented ideas to his uncle, Dick Hartge, a boat builder of considerable reputation along the Chesapeake. Soon the boatyard built the 26-foot Quadrant, and built enough of them for the craft to become a sailing class of its own.
Ten years after returning to Galesville, he founded Hartge Yacht Sales and Hartge Yacht Insurance. In 1965 he bought Annapolis Yacht sales and founded a real estate company.
In his spare time he became quite an accomplished sailor. "He crewed the Bermuda races several times, and was quite in demand," Totch Hartge recalled.
Totch Hartge's sister, Suzanna Hartge, recalled her first memory of Laurence. "I remember he was the tallest of all the Hartges," she said. "He was tall and thin, always in motion, a purposeful stride."
She was the youngest of the generation, he was the oldest. "We used to call ourselves the bookends," she said.
In the past few years, after his second wife died, Suzanna Hartge became his companion, keeping an eye on her oldest friend.
"The last years have been wonderful. He was the most elegant, regular guy I have ever known - an elegant, elegant man," she said.
She recalled that after he moved back to the area after living in Florida for about 10 years following his retirement in 1981, he was getting to know the family again.
"My fondest thought of him is that he would take time to get to know you again," she said. "He liked to impart what he knew and he wanted to know what you knew, too. He was very curious and loved teaching you how to do something. If you showed an interest, he would give you everything he's got."
After returning to Galesville and Annapolis, his passions turned to creating a Hartge nautical museum. He also took up painting - mostly boats, of course.
"He had always been the one with the most interest in the family history," Suzanna said. "He took interest in the models, he seemed to be the one who always ended up with 'the stuff.' "
He went about that task with the same passion showed to most everything he undertook. "It gave him a purpose," Suzanna Hartge said.
And soon, with help from Peter Tasi, a well-known exhibit designer who just happened to have married into the Hartge clan, the Hartge Nautical Museum was fit into the old family home on the boatyard grounds. It opened in 1999.
"His passion was untamable," Tasi said. "He would read books on boating and ships and military vessels, anything to do with the water."
That passion led to the Annapolis Maritime Museum opening an exhibit of the Hartge collection. In it were memorabilia, photos and many of Laurence Hartge's paintings, along with details of another famous Hartge craft, the Chesapeake 20.
"It was exhausting and exhilarating all at once," Suzanna Hartge said. "But it really seemed to bring Laurence's life full circle."
The exhibit was dismantled a few months ago, its items put it in boxes to be taken back to the museum.
"And it was time to go to sleep," Suzanna Hartge said of her cousin.
He did so on Monday.
A memorial service, more of a celebration of Laurence Woodrow Hartge's life, will be held Saturday at Christ Episcopal Church in Owensville. The service begins at 3 p.m. and will be followed by a reception in the old shop at the family boatyard at the end of Church Lane in Galesville.
Annapolis Maritime Museum |
PO Box 3088 |
Annapolis, MD 21403
410 295-0104
office@amaritime.org
