John Robert Hartman

May 9, 1929 - January 27, 1990

Nancy Ogden Westerdahl’s First Cousin

Older family members may remember visiting Nancy’s Aunt Grayce and Uncle Ira on their farm in Rochelle, Illinois. Only a few may remember their three children, Mildred, John and Maribeth.

John Robert Hartman was a graduate of Rochelle High School, Northwestern, and the University of Illinois Medical College. In 1967, he moved to Santa Barbara, California where he opened several very successful Coastal Radiation Oncology Centers. 

John and his wife Barbara were renowned in their community for contributions to the arts. Dr. Hartman was vice president of the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center, and in 1989 the couple donated $500,000 to that organization. Dr. Hartman and Barbara were also active in their Episcopalian Church.

Hartman was a Rotarian, president of the California Cancer Society and past president of the San Louis Obispo County Symphony Board.

John and Barbara often toured Europe in an old river barge they refurbished, and in January of 1990, while vacationing in Paris they were found on the houseboat in a sheltered inlet off the River Seine, the apparent victims of accidental asphyxiation.

John was sixty years old, and Barbara was fifty-eight.

Bruce