For anyone who may remember the 1984 movie “The Natural,” about an unusually blessed athlete, that title is also an appropriate metaphor for the remarkable life of George B. Hartman Jr., who passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on Nov. 4, 2013, just 46 days short of his 90th birthday.

Along with his mother, Gertrude, older sister, Jean, and younger brother, Ted, George’s early years were spent in the small town of DeRidder, La., where his father, George B. Hartman Sr., managed the Long-Bell creosoting plant, which specialized in making telephone poles and railroad ties. Being little more than a sleepy Southern whistle-stop, there wasn’t always a lot to do around DeRidder. Soon enough, through playing catch in the front yard with his beloved dad, George learned that baseball was something he was not only good at, but loved. From then on, he was in perpetual pursuit of scaring up a sandlot game with anyone he could get to join in.

While attending Ames High School in Ames, Iowa, where George’s family had moved in 1937 in order for his father to assume a forestry professorship at Iowa State College (now University), George was elected student body president during his senior year, much to his dismay. Always self-effacing and shy, he decided not to mention the news to anyone at home. When his mother eventually received a congratulatory phone call, she and the rest of the family were suitably stunned by the news. In terms of athletics, George excelled at football, basketball and track throughout his high school years. He was a two-year starter at right end on the varsity football team, earning all-conference honors as a senior. He also starred on the track team, placing third in the state as a junior in the 880; then, during his senior year, running the anchor leg in Ames High School’s signature race, the 4 x 880 relay, helping to lead them to the state track and field championship in 1941. George then moved on to major in forestry at Iowa State College and joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Though the school’s track coach heavily recruited him for the team, George had other things in mind.
While growing up as an ardent fan of the St. Louis Cardinals during the Gashouse Gang years of the early ’30s, he dreamed of nothing more than someday playing baseball himself. Except there was just one problem: Ames High, being a spring sport track powerhouse, purposely had no baseball team. So, despite possessing exactly zero organized ball-playing experience, George went out for baseball at Iowa State anyway and against all odds, ended up becoming the Cyclone’s fleet-footed center fielder.

With the onset of World War II, as with most of the “Greatest Generation,” George was drafted into the armed forces. The Army shipped him overseas to India in 1943, where his advanced mathematical skills got him assigned to the 653rd Topographical Engineering Battalion as a cartographer. There he helped create complex artillery maps for the Allies, in particular those used by Merrill’s Marauders in the South-East Asian Theater. After gratefully returning stateside in late 1945, George then finished his studies at Iowa State, graduating with a B.S. in forestry in 1948. Later that same year, George accepted a position with a branch of the Edward Hines Lumber Company in Burns. During his time there, George cruised timber, played baseball in a semi-pro league with a bunch of Double-A and Triple-A players, and most important, became engaged to Dorothy Goins, a beautiful RN at the local hospital.

George and Dorothy married in July 1955 and immediately moved to Portland, where George joined the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in the forestry division. In 1960, George and Dorothy had a son, Kent. For the next 30 years, back when timber was king in Oregon, George worked for the BLM as a biometricianist, designing innumerable groundbreaking statistical sampling programs that helped determine growth and yield projections among federal forests. In furtherance of his career, George and his family temporarily moved to Syracuse, N.Y., for a year starting in the fall of 1968, so that he could earn a master’s degree in statistics from Syracuse University.

After returning to Portland, in 1970 George was delighted to learn the news that there would now be an NBA franchise in town. After hearing about the big statewide contest to name the team, he decided to toss in his idea. Given his extensive forestry background, and with the notion of the Oregon Trail in mind, he submitted the words “Trail Blazers.” Well, everyone knows how that turned out. George and a small number of others all then received official letters of congratulations from the organization for naming the Portland Trail Blazers. In 1988, just before retiring, George received the Distinguished Service Award from the United States Department of the Interior (the agency’s highest individual honor) during a special ceremony in Washington, D.C. George and his wife then spent the next 17 years happily traveling the world together.

Dorothy Hartman passed in 2008. So, George Hartman was a natural, yes; but in a manner far greater than merely about athletics or math or even forestry. He was, most of all, a natural at caring for others. In his own quiet way, he would do anything for anybody, no questions asked. A lifelong, devout Baptist, George truly walked the walk. And as a devoted husband and father, words cannot begin to express what he meant to his family, other than to simply say “everything.”

George Hartman is survived by his son, Kent of Portland; brother, Dr. J. Ted Hartman (Jean) of Lubbock, Texas; one niece; three nephews; and two cousins, including Louise Long (Homer) of Dallas.

A memorial service for George B. Hartman, Jr. will be held at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013, at the First Baptist Church, downtown. In lieu of flowers, please make any donations to the American Heart Association.

Facts Born: December 20, 1923
Death: November 4, 2013