John Fiske Hartley, 86, died peacefully on April 7 at Piper Shores Retirement Community.
The funeral for John Hartley will be held Saturday, April 23.
John was born in Medford, Mass. in 1929 to Noble Munroe and Ethel Fiske Hartley. He lived in Portsmouth and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Arlington, Mass., where he graduated from Arlington High School.
He received a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University in 1952, and a master’s from the Middlebury Language School in 1953.
John taught French at The Choate School and then served in the U.S. Army for two years in peacetime Korea. He started his career with the Travelers Insurance Company in New York and New Jersey. During this time, John often traveled to Binghamton, N.Y. to visit his parents. There he met his future wife, Kathleen Hardy.
John and Kathy were married in 1961 and had two sons, Rusty (John Jr.) and Bruce. They settled in Darien, where they lived from 1965 through 1994. After 19 years with the Travelers, John joined the Charter Oak Insurance Agency in Darien in 1973 and eventually became an owner.
John was also involved with many local organizations. He served as a coach for the Darien Little League, and was president for 15 years. He was involved with the YMCA Indian Guides and then scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 53.
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— an obituary from Hobbs Funeral Home
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He was a member and president of the Darien Rotary Club, and a member of the Darien Park and Recreation Committee. He was a member, a deacon, a trustee, an elder, and a Sunday school teacher at the Norton Presbyterian Church.
After his retirement from Charter Oak in 1994, John and Kathy moved to Cape Elizabeth where they lived for 15 years. They spent winters on Anguilla and St. Augustine, Fla., and summers at their family home in Pine Point, Scarborough. John also volunteered at the Spurwink Cemetery.
One of his greatest personal accomplishments during his retirement was to complete an extensive genealogy of his family dating back 300 years to the Scottish highlands. This took him over 10 years to complete, involved hundreds of hours of research and conversations with extended family members, and ultimately led to his membership in the Sons of the American Revolution.
John and Kathy moved to Piper Shores in 2009, where John remained active by serving as chairman of the Store Committee.
His greatest joy came from spending time with his wife, his sons, and his grandchildren. John will be remembered by friends and family as a kind, caring, and compassionate gentleman, a role model for all of us, a decent and honorable citizen and a loving husband, father and grandfather.
John is survived by his wife, Kathleen, his son Rusty and his partner Christina Lane, his son Bruce and his wife Maria, his beloved grandchildren, James and Julia, his brother David and his wife Teri, his nephew David, Jr. and his wife Cathy, his niece Laura Fagan and her husband John, his grandnephew Kyle Fagan and grandniece Colleen Fagan, and his cousin, Ann Mills.
Services will be held at the Blue Point Congregational Church, 236 Pine Point Road, Scarborough at 10 a.m., Saturday, April 23. John will be interred at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Auburn on April 25 in a private ceremony.
Any acts of kindness in his memory would be appreciated, especially those in support of the Planned Parenthood of Northern New England — their address is PPNNE, Support Department, 784 Hercules Dr., Suite 110, Colchester, VT 05446-9943.
The Hartley family would like to thank the staff at Piper Shores and Holbrook, as well the VNA Home Health Hospice organization for their caring support during this time.
Arrangements are under the care of Hobbs Funeral Home, 230 Cottage Road, South Portland, Maine. On-line condolences may be shared at the Hobbs Funeral Home website.