Totton Heffelfinger II

1927 - 2017

Totton P. Heffelfinger, II

December 7, 1927 – January 30, 2017

It is with sadness that we say farewell to Totton Peavey Heffelfinger, a devoted husband and loving father, who passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his family on Monday, January 30, 2017, following a long illness. Tot was born on December 7, 1927 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the second eldest of four children of George and Ruth Heffelfinger. As a boy growing up in both Minneapolis and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tot became an avid outdoors enthusiast, spending many hours with his beloved brother George and cousin Fred Wells, fishing, hunting and canoeing. As a father, he relished backpacking with his children, particularly in the Trinity Alps, and also teaching them to ski, ice skate and, especially, sail on Tomales Bay.

Tot attended the Blake School in Minneapolis. During his high school summers he worked for the family grain business, the Peavey Company, where he lived in a boarding house and spent his days hoisting and transporting bags of grain. Tot graduated from Yale University (1948) and Harvard Law School (1952). It was during his time at law school that he met Joanne Callery, a Radcliffe undergraduate; they married in July, 1953.

Following law school, Tot and Joanne moved to Washington D.C. Tot took a position with the Defense Department where he spent two years, part of which was devoted to developing the Status of Forces Agreements which govern the legal relationships between overseas U.S. military personnel and foreign host governments. In early 1954, they left D.C. for San Francisco where Tot took a job with the Brobeck Phleger & Harrison law firm, and began raising a family. From 1954-1962, the first five of seven children arrived: Christopher, followed by twins Perry and Ellen, James and then Matthew.

Tot joined Kaiser Industries in 1960, ultimately rising to General Counsel of Kaiser Cement. He traveled extensively on Kaiser's behalf in the 60's and 70's, negotiating and monitoring contracts in Ghana, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand and Greece. In 1965, Joanne and the children moved to Athens to join Tot, who was then handling a dispute over non-payment by the Greek government for the Kremasta Dam, a hydro-electric project constructed by Kaiser in northern Greece. During this time, the family developed an enduring love for the country, sharing adventures and travels in their VW bus to archaeological sites and islands as well as to the Balkans and Turkey. Upon their return to San Francisco in the summer of 1967 (with the bus), the family welcomed the arrival of another son, Steven. The family enjoyed many weekends and summers together, at Steep Ravine and later in Inverness, where Tot became involved with the Inverness Yacht Club, eventually serving a term as Commodore.

Beginning in the mid-1970's, Tot was an adjunct professor at U.C. Berkeley (Boalt Hall), and later at the University of San Francisco School of Law in the 1980s-90s, teaching courses in international law and dispute resolution. During this period, he also developed his deep interest in environmental matters, particularly focusing on wetlands preservation issues. Tot was appointed by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown as an alternate commissioner on the Bay Conservation and Development Commission which he served from 1987 to 1992. From the early 1980's to 2008, Tot also worked with the Sierra Club, becoming Chairman of the Wetlands Committee of the San Francisco Bay Chapter and a member of the Club's national Clean Water and Wetlands steering committee. He periodically traveled back to Washington D.C. to lobby Congress --including several former law school classmates -- to vote favorably on pending wetlands legislation. In tandem with his focus on wetlands, Tot was a lifelong lover of birds and was involved for many years with the Point Reyes Bird Observatory (now Point Blue), serving as a director and as president of the board.

During the late 1980s, Tot and Joanne were introduced to Nepal by their close friend Olga Murray. Olga started the Nepal Youth Foundation to help Nepalese children and Tot was a staunch supporter as well as long-time member of its board of directors. In the early 1990s, the family welcomed another child, Durga Thapa, who came from Nepal at age nine for medical treatment. Durga's courage and spirit inspired the family, and she became both the seventh child and a shared daughter with her Nepalese family. Other children from Nepal also came to the family home while undergoing medical treatment, including Bishnu Maya Dhungana.

Tot is survived by Joanne, his loving wife of 63 years, and by his children: Christopher (Amanda Weitman), Perry (Carey Chenoweth), Ellen (Richard Wiebe), James (Priscilla Perry), Matthew (Chering Lama), Steven (Tammy), Durga (Scott Wood), his grandchildren James Heffelfinger; William, Charles and Emily Wiebe; Cedar, Linden, Rowan and Totton Heffelfinger; Nima and Rinchen Heffelfinger; Devin (Emily Lamelza), Branden and Kaley Heffelfinger; and his great- grandchildren, Elli and Devin, Jr.

Tot was a remarkably gentle, thoughtful, funny, generous and modest man. He will be forever remembered by Joanne and all of his children and grandchildren for his love of family, his sense of humor and story-telling talents, and by his devotion to nature and to the greater community. We will miss you, we will love you, and you will always live in our hearts and minds.

The family gratefully thanks Teresita F. Cabanez and Angelica Murray for their compassionate care of Tot in his last years, as well as the staff of Sutter Hospice. In lieu of flowers, donations in Tot's name may be made to the Sierra Club, Point Blue or the Nepal Youth Foundation.

A gathering for friends and family is planned for April.