On July eleventh, Jan Hamilton passed away peacefully at Pacifica Senior Living in Merced.
Jan was born in Oakland, Calif., on March 16, 1934 to Elihu G. Mattoon, an actual 49er, who served as a Seabee in the Pacific during World War II and again during the Korean War, and Marian Emerson, who was a nurse at Lake Merritt Hospital in Oakland.
Jan’s parents separated when she was four and she lived for several years on Thornhill Drive in Montclair in Oakland, where she and cousins would play among the Oak trees along Temescal Creek.
Several years later her mother was remarried to Dr. William Mills, who was also divorced. Together they rented various properties which had gone into bankruptcy during the Great Depression in Mariposa.
After World War II ended these properties were auctioned by the government in San Francisco, and Marian’s brother, who was a lawyer, successful bid to purchase these tracts. Later they were renamed the Circle 9 Ranch.
In the summer, during the war years, Jan and her step-brother, Dr. William Mills Jr., and her stepsister, Jane Sheldon (who have both passed away), would camp out in Army surplus tents with their mother and spend their days working and riding horses. You could ride horses all the way into Yosemite Valley from Jerseydale as the roads weren’t paved and there were very few cars on the road after the war.
From 1951-54, Jan attended U.C. Berkeley, where she married “the boy across the street,” Bob Hamilton, and together they had three sons.
After Bob graduated from Berkeley, he was stationed in Baumholder, Germany, with the U.S. Army. Later, Jan was allowed to travel to and live on the economy in Idar Oberstein, which she always remembered fondly.
After being honorably discharged, Bob went to work for Chevrolet in Fremont and they moved to Hayward. Later, Bob was promoted, working at first in Visalia, and later Marysville, before they returned to the Bay Area in 1964 (Orinda).
Jan again attended U.C. Berkeley in an attempt to finish her degree, however, in 1966 Bob’s job moved the family to Bellevue, Wash. Jan continued her studies at the University of Washington and in 1968, she finally finished her B.A. in Sociology. She then started working in real estate and later ran a small business college. In 1984, Bob’s job moved back to California and they settled in Pleasanton, where Jan again worked in real estate.
In 1990 Bob retired and they moved to the Circle 9. Jan continued in residential sales, working at D & E Realty.
Jan worked tirelessly for decades as a volunteer in Mariposa. She served as the president of the Mariposa County Board of Realtors in 1997, she helped to start the Mariposa County Fire Safe Council in 1998 and in 2006 it was granted IRS 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit corporation status. Finally, she was one the founding members of the Catnip Society and served as its first president.
Jan was preceded in death by her husband, Bob, who died in 2000, as well as her son, Rob, who died in 2011, and her son John in 2019 (at the time he was engaged to Susan Bower-Litzenberger).
She is survived by her son Chris (a life member of VFW post 6042) and his wife Christa, as well as her daughter-in-law, Elsie Hamilton, of Makaha, Hawaii.
She has seven grandchildren as well as nine great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that you donate either your time or funds to a local organization that supports the community.
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