Harlan Neil Head

Resident of Berkeley

Harlan was born in Greenland, Missouri to Carl Conway Head and Winnie Head. He was the middle child with his brother Larry, who was 3 years older and his sister Carolyn who was 11 years younger.  He was raised on a dairy farm, which was so far out of town that the address in the 1950 census was given as “Going South On 71 After Crossing Bridge on West Fork of White River”. Neither he nor his brother were much interested in farming, but they helped keep the farm going through Harlan’s graduation from high school.

He attended the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where he met his wife Marilyn, who was a fellow student in the Chemical Engineering program and who was the first woman to graduate from their Department of Chemical Engineering. They were married in 1960 in Russellville, Arkansas, which was Marilyn’s hometown.

After graduation they moved to Baytown, Texas where Harlan pursued a PhD at Rice University in Houston and Marilyn worked for the Humble Oil Company as the contact person for the Ethyl Benzene Plant in Baytown.

After Harlan finished his graduate work, he accepted a job with Shell Development Co. in Emeryville, California. They lived in Berkeley and adopted 3 children, Stefanie, Michael and Ben. Michael died in 1979 at age 9, and Stefanie was found to have cerebral palsy. Both Harlan and Marilyn were extremely proud of their children, and Marilyn devoted much of her time to working tirelessly with them, with the result that Stef not only finished high school but earned an associate degree with honors from Berkeley City College.

In the mid-1960’s, Harlan and Marilyn discovered Sycamore Congregational Church in El Cerrito where they were both faithful members and leaders of the church for almost 60 years. He took up learning to play the shakuhachi, a Japanese flute, which he would play during church services.

Harlan was not only on the church council for many years, but he was also the church fix-it man, who was able to tackle almost any problem that developed in a building that had lots of problems. He used to carry cards that he called his “punch list” in his shirt pocket, and whatever he was asked to do would be added to the punch list and eventually crossed off when done.

One of the really large projects that he took on was rehabilitating a house in Berkeley for Stefanie, which had to be made wheelchair accessible and designed with her needs in mind. In the last few years of their lives he, Marilyn and Stefanie all shared the house, and both Harlan and Marilyn died at home.

Marilyn passed away just two weeks before Harlan. They had been married for 64 years. They are both survived by their children Stefanie and Benjamin, and they will be sadly missed. We would especially like to thank their caregiver, Lorena Castro, for taking care of them so well, and making their last months as comfortable and peaceful as possible. Memorial services will be announced at a future date.

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