Tenth Generation

6191. Michael Allan Bedwell was born on 1 Jul 1930 in Lone Pine, Inyo County, California.¹⁶¹² He died on 9 Mar 2008 in Escondido, California.

• Obituary from Palo Alto Online News (Palo Alto, CA), 13 Mar 2008 (found at http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=7450):

Former Menlo Park city manager Michael Bedwell dies at 77
He held city's top staff post for 27 years

Michael Allan Bedwell, Menlo Park city manager from 1964 to 1991, died March 9 after a fight with heart and lung problems, the city announced March 13. Mr. Bedwell was 77, and died in Escondido, where he lived.

He served as assistant city manager in 1959 before being named to the city's top post in 1964.

Under Mr. Bedwell's watch, the Menlo Park Redevelopment Agency was formed, and the Marsh Road garbage dump was capped and converted into Bayfront Park.

"[Mr. Bedwell] was known for his approachability, good humor and compassion," said Personnel Director Glen Kramer in an e-mail to all city employees.

Mr. Bedwell retired in 1991, but served as acting city manager of East Palo Alto in 1993.

He was born in Lone Pine, California, and grew up in Escondido before serving in the U.S. Navy, where he was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1954, according an obituary sent to the city by his wife Carleen.

After his stint in the Navy, he served a public service fellowship with the CORO Foundation in San Francisco before moving to Menlo Park and working for the city, the obituary says.

Following his retirement, he moved back to Escondido and spent time traveling with his wife, and co-authored a book about his mother's side of the family.

Mr. Bedwell is survived by his wife, Carleen; his sons, Allan and Patrick; and two grandchildren.

• Remembrance (author not listed) found at http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:RdUAbKWXOgEJ:service.govdelivery.com/docs/CAMENLO/CAMENLO_1/CAMENLO_1_20080313_en.pdf+Bedwell&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=83&gl=us

Michael Allan Bedwell, 77, of Escondido, passed away after a valiant battle with heart and lung problems March 9, 2008. Anyone who knew Mike Bedwell for a short time knew he was quick to laugh, quick to find the humor in everything his life and mind touched. Mike was born in Lone Pine, CA on July 1, 1930, the only child of Laura Lial Miller Bedwell and Allan Walter Bedwell. In 1934 his family moved from the eastern side of the Sierras, where his father had been a miner and had a freight service, to rural
Escondido in northern San Diego County, where they planted avocado and citrus trees on the hilly terrain and built a graceful hilltop home. There Mike grew up among the granite boulders and open hills and valleys. It was always “the Ranch”.

Mike attended Orange Glen Grammar School and Escondido Union High School, graduating in 1948. He graduated from Pomona College in 1952, and attended Claremont Men’s College before being commissioned as a Lieutenant (j.g.) in the US Navy in 1954, during the Korean War. While in the Navy, he served as communications officer on the island of Guam and at China Lake Naval Weapons Center.

After the Navy, he earned a year-long public service fellowship with the Coro Foundation in San Francisco, in 1957-58. While a Coro fellow, he met another CORO fellow and his future wife, Carleen Finney, of Whittier, CA. They were married in July 1958 in Anaheim.

Upon completion of his Coro fellowship, Mike and Carleen moved to the San Francisco peninsula where Mike served first as Assistant City Manager of Menlo Park from 1959 to 1964. He then became City Manager of Menlo Park, from 1964 until he retired in 1991. Their two sons, Allan and Patrick, were born and grew up during these Menlo Park years.

Mike stewarded the City of Menlo Park through many changes over those 27 years. The accomplishments of which he was most proud included the formation of the Menlo Park Redevelopment Agency, cohesion and involvement of all of the community, conversion of the local dump into a large bayside park, and the professional development of his staff. After retirement, he also briefly served as acting City Manager of East Palo Alto in 1993. Mike’s love of community governance never dimmed.

After his retirement and the years of focusing on Menlo Park night and day, he pursued his passion of seeing more of the world. With family and friends he traveled to Denmark, England, France, Germany, East Germany, Greece, Italy, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia. During this time, he moved from Menlo Park back to the Ranch in Escondido to maintain and preserve this very special place for future Bedwells. The 4th generation now scrambles over the same granite strewn hillsides and explores throughout the leafy and dense avocado orchard he knew as a boy.

A constant in Mike’s life was his love of the eastern side of the Sierras. He made frequent trips through the Owens Valley and over the Sierras, always stopping at Bodie State Historical Park, where his mother was born in 1898. The house in which his mother was born still stands and is open to the public. It is known as the Miller House, across from his grandfather’s freight and horse barn, the Tom Miller Barn. He always enjoyed sharing his love of this high-sierra ghost town with his friends and family.

In 2005, Mike co-authored a book on the history of his mother’s side of the Bedwell family. He and his cousin Beverly Spencer wrote, “The Miller-Currie Connection” that documented the Miller and Currie families, from Thomas Miller’s departure from Scotland around 1800, to the present day. The Currie family, Mike’s great grandparents, settled on the shores of Mono Lake and raised thirteen children, including Mike’s maternal grandmother, Jessie (Currie Miller). The Currie children grew to adulthood in the beautiful eastern side of the Sierras and developed their own families throughout the region.

Life with Mike was never dull. He had a quick mind that instantly saw the humorous and appreciated the great varieties in human activity. Mike loved opera, mystery stories, and word play. He was a good story teller. He cherished good friends and appreciated their gifts. He loved his family and watched as each followed his and her own path. He thought deeply and reflectively, beyond the humor and his agreeable nature.

“Gramps” is survived by his family: wife Carleen, sons Allan and Patrick, daughter-in-law Joanne, granddaughters Madeline and Isabel, nieces Alice and Aileen, and the many Currie and Miller relatives originating from the Sierras.

Plans for a gathering in Mike’s honor are pending. In lieu of flowers or considerations to the family, please consider a donation in Mike’s memory to the Friends of Bodie Foundation, Box 515, Bridgeport, CA 93517; or the Scripps Health Foundation, P. O. Box 85414, San Diego, CA 92186-5414.

Mike’s friends and family will always cherish his laughter, his wit, and the twinkle in his eye when he told a good story. We will miss him.

Michael Allan Bedwell and Carleen Finney were married in Jul 1958 in Anaheim, Orange County, California. Michael Allan Bedwell and Carleen Finney had the following children:

7811	i.	Allan F. Bedwell.
7812	ii.	Patrick M. Bedwell.