Person:Charles Seaver (100)

http://www.ncga.org/magazine/02mags/october/seaver.htm

Charles Henry Seaver was born July 14, 1911, in Kansas City, Missouri. He was the first of three children born to Everett and Gertrude Seaver. There would be a sister, Katherine, now deceased, and then a brother, James Everett, seven years Charlie’s junior. Now he recalls the years that have made him a national treasure, not only as a former amateur golf great but as a true gentleman.

           The tape rolls and the questions continue. With great reverence, Charlie talks of “Father, Mother, Sister and Brother” as if we all know them. There is tremendous pride in his recollections. It is a pride that continues to develop as he turns the pages of years past into the present.
           “Father” was Everett Seaver. He molded a young man who would receive the epitome of acknowledgement when the California Golf Association started the Seaver Cup in 1998. It is a bi-annual competition between the best golfers from the SCGA and NCGA, two organizations intertwined in the history of both father and son.

           Everett Seaver was a renowned golfer even before moving his family to Southern California from Kansas City. He won the 1908 Trans-Mississippi championship. After taking up residence in Los Angeles, Everett joined prestigious L.A. Country Club. From that base, he would go on to win the SCGA championship in 1920, become president of that association (in 1928) and then president of the California Golf Association (in 1930).
           Everett Seaver’s love of his life was Gertrude Sharp. She was the daughter of wealthy railroad executive Charles Henry Sharp. Sharp was one of the masterminds of the Sante Fe Railroad throughout the West.
           The Sharps lived in Los Angeles. Their home was a 23-room mansion on Wilshire Boulevard. “Home” included a ballroom on the third floor where the Sharps often entertained and where James Seaver started his love for music. Later, when Charles Sharp died, Everett Seaver and his family moved into the home with Gertrude’s mother from their more modest residence four or five blocks away.
           One of Charlie’s first memories comes after his family moved into the mansion.
           “The war (WWI) was on and a gentlemen who lived on the same street, Ferdinand R. Bain  (founder of Southern Counties Gas Company, which later would be Southern California Edison) was squiring my grandmother.
           “He and his chauffer would pick up grandmother and they would go for a ride through town and to the La Brea Tar Pits … Gas was expensive in those days – 15 cents a gallon and very hard to come by because of the war. I could hear the chauffeurs burning carbon off their engines with acetylene torches. That helped the cars run better.
           “Anyway, Mr. Bain’s chauffer was a young man named Eddie. Grandmother used to come back from the rides and tell us how Eddie had driven 45 mph! Eddie was there just a short time before he joined the Army Air Corps. He was replaced by his brother Louie and then Louie was replaced by Dewey.”
           Eddie, Charlie Seaver would later learn, was a nationally known auto race car driver who also was taking flying lessons at Ruth Roland Flying, which was located opposite the Tar Pits. Eddie Rickenbacker completed his pilot training for the Army Air Corps in 17 days. He went on to shoot down 26 enemy aircraft and was America’s most decorated pilot. Rickenbacker, who later founded Eastern Airlines, received the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1930 for his exploits in WWI.
           Everett Seaver worked in the investment business and was deeply involved in real estate. He was successful in the business world until 1929, the year of the crash on Wall Street. The family lost millions.
           “Father was everything you could ask for in a man,” says his son. “The only trouble is, he was the worst businessman in the world.” Everett Seaver did not even have life insurance when he passed away.
           Although his business troubles were not revealed to his children until some time in 1934, Everett Seaver lost beachfront property in Santa Monica, a chance to own Terminal Island – at a mere cost of  $10,000 – in Los Angeles and, in the end, his membership in the still extremely private L.A. Country Club. There was a family loss of more than $875,000 in just one New York bank stock.
           “I knew something was wrong when I was told (at L.A. Country Club) I could not charge anything anymore,” Charlie recalls.
           But, before the fall, there was life at the fullest. “Father would take me to the course even when I was 6 or 7. I would play along, finish the hole first and then go wait on the bench on the next tee. I don’t think anyone we played with cared.”
           Charlie’s sister Catherine was not a golfer, but a top tennis player and an outstanding surfer.
           “Father and I would take off for Pebble Beach and the State Amateur,” smiles Seaver. “Mother and Sister would go to Hawaii for tennis, sun and surf.” However, the entire family did go to Pebble Beach in 1926. With Mother and Sister in the gallery, Charles defeated his dad in an early-round match. Upon learning they were paired against each other, Everett Seaver told his son, “You better play well or I’ll beat your butt.” Charlie, just 16, obviously paid attention. He won by a 3 and 2 margin.
           Charles Seaver speaks with great pride about his brother James.
           “Brother is a brilliant man,” says Charles. The graduate of Stanford University is an emeritus in history at Kansas University. He was the first to host a national radio show on opera and is still one of the top opera critics in the country.
           “James donated something like 30,000 records to Kansas University.”
           The early years in Los Angeles were idyllic. Charles attended Los Angeles High School. “I drove by there (recently) and it has been condemned,” he says. “I was not the greatest student, but I worked hard. I didn’t play any athletics, but concentrated on my golf … Well, I did play a lot of tennis, too, and volleyball at the athletic club.”
           Charles won the 1926 Southern California Junior Amateur. “That was the only time,” he smiles. “I kept running into Faye Coleman. He was my nemesis.”
           But, Seaver’s reputation had been established. In 1928, he received an invitation to play Cypress Point before it opened. In the group was his father, State Am champ John McHugh and Polly Woodard, from Southern California. Designer Alister Mackenzie followed the group. Seaver was outstanding, registering five straight birdies (hole Nos. 4-8) in one stretch and finishing with a 67.
           “Dr. Mackenzie was a fine man and his design stands the tests of time. He believed that good shots should go toward the hole. Any shot outside the perimeter would be penalized … He was delighted when I made those five birdies.”

http://www.golftodaymagazine.com/0412dec/southlan.htm

Charles Seaver, one of California’s greatest amateur golfers and the father of Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, died in October at the age of 93.

He died in Pebble Beach after a short illness.

Charlie Seaver, who graduated from Stanford and lived much of his life in Fresno, played on the 1932 Walker Cup team and won both of his matches in the 8-1 victory by the United States over Britain at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

“My dad was my hero,” said Tom Seaver, who pitched for the New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox and now is a broadcaster for the Mets. “All of my competitiveness on the playing field came from him.

“He always came to as many games as possible, and it was so important to me that he was there when I was inducted into the Hall of Fame (in 1992). I wouldn’t have gotten where I am without his instruction and guidance.”

In 1933-34, Charlie Seaver held the California Amateur, Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur championship and the Northern California Golf Assn. Amateur titles simultaneously.

George Van Elm, in 1925, was the only other player to hold all three titles at the same time.

As good as he was, Seaver remained an amateur.

“I had to go to work,” he said. “Professional golf wasn’t the lucrative sport back in the 1920s and 1930s that it is today.”

Born in Kansas City, Seaver moved to California with his parents in 1912, a year after he was born. His father, Everett, was a fine amateur golfer himself, winning the 1908 Trans-Mississippi Amateur and the 1920 SCGA Amateur.

Everett served as SCGA president in 1928 and Charlie was NCGA president in 1980.

Charlie Seaver entered his first tournament at the age of 9 (with a 30 handicap), and won the Los Angeles Country Club Invitational at age 15.

In 1930, Seaver lost a U.S. Amateur semifinal match to Gene Homans, who lost the next day to Bobby Jones as Jones completed his Grand Slam with an 8 and 7 victory.

“I got to play Bobby Jones three times, but not the most important time,” Seaver said.

Seaver captured the Fresno City title six times in the 1940s and won the 1949 Northern California Open. He played 39 times in the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am (now known as the AT&T National Pro-Am) at Pebble Beach, finally winning the team title in 1964 while paired with Mike Fetchick, the 1956 Western Open champion.

Seaver competed in 39 consecutive Bing Crosby National Pro-Ams. He paired with such movie stars as Douglas Fairbanks and Randolph Scott and business mogul Howard Hughes.

The Seaver Cup, an annual Ryder Cup-style team tournament between the best players from Northern and Southern California that is played every November at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa, is named in his honor. . .