Whistlestop OCTOBER 2011
E PRESS
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The Leading Information Resource for Marin's Active Aging Movement
85-Year-Old Wins Best in Show in Whistlestop Photo Contest
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majestic cheetah, appealing snow monkeys, a shadowy figure at a train station, and an array of Marin County vistas are among winners in the third annual Whistlestop Photo Contest. Best in Show went to the cheetah photographed by George Cunha of San Rafael at
a South African Rescue Institute. George told Whistlestop, “Cheetahs are an endangered species because the grasslands, which is their natural habitat, are disappearing, and they have to make a living in areas where they must comcontinued on page 6 ◗ Best in Show Taken by George Cunha
Architect Stays Busy at 95 by JOHN BOWMAN
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inety may be the new 80 in some places, but in Marin County, many nonagenarians work and act as if they were in their 50s. In this issue of Whistlestop Express, we honor a number of those 90-somethings. Ed Hageman, 95, of San Rafael continues to work as an architect Tuesday through Friday. His wife of 70 years, Bette, is 90, and they have two children, Richard Hageman, a banker, and Susan Jean Nelson, a retired teacher. He designed the remodeling and additions to the present Whistlestop building, which
Country Lawyer Still Busy at 95 page 13
he remembers as being “a little railroad building” back in the day. His work there included adding a kitchen plus the upper floors. The clock tower, a downtown San Rafael landmark, was his design idea. His other major projects in Marin include the Boy Scout Building on Greenfield Avenue and the Corte Madera Recreation Center. A huge project in earlier days was the re-design of the Westlake Homes in Daly City. Ed’s old boss, developer Henry Doelger, for whom he once worked, first developed Westlake in the 1950s. It was
Grand Mom's Friend at 90 page 15
one of the earliest examples of a large-tract suburb and was featured in Life magazine. Later Doegler came to Hageman to do the re-design. The project received heavy media attention and Ed was dubbed “The Wizard of Westlake.” Hageman calls himself a “meat and potatoes” designer, and he once told a San Francisco Chronicle interviewer that, “I designed homes for people who thought they never could afford me.” He said that business has been slow during the current sluggish economy, but he just finished a project of four homes for a contractor in Novato. He also recently completed work on a $3 million home in San Anselmo that Ed continued on page 6
From Rocky's Pantry page 4