A person must be special for people to make a book about her.
Kathleen Hamilton is that.
The longtime local environmental activist was feted recently with a 72-page, 8-by-11-inch book and a luncheon in Temecula.
In the book’s foreword, the committee of six wrote: “Our hope is that in a brief telling of her story it will inspire people in the future to know that they can make a difference in their community.”
Starting with plans about 35 years ago to build tract homes on what is now the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve near Murrieta, Hamilton led the 911 call to rescue the area from suburbia.
Her environmental efforts continued in the 1990s with opposition to development in the De Luz area west of Temecula and additional protections for Murrieta Creek that travels through much of southwest Riverside County.
Her biggest achievement was leading the opposition to the Liberty Quarry proposed between Temecula and the San Diego County line, the major news event in the four decades since southwest Riverside County urbanized.
Hamilton was president of the Save Our Southwest Hills group that worked for eight years to fight the project. Members continued to meet about other issues and agreed that Hamilton’s story needed to be told. The book committee is Robbie Adkins, Fred and Linda Bartz, Mariann Byers, Meryle Hammatt and Susan Miyamoto.
“None of us have ever known anyone like her, and we have all known some amazing people,” they wrote in the foreword. “She stands at the top of that list.”
Six pages of lengthy testimonials include entries from longtime Riverside County Supervisor Chuck Washington, Mark Macarro of the Pechanga Band of Indians, former Temecula mayors Jeff Comerchero, Maryann Edwards and Matt Rahn, local businessman Dan Stevenson, her daughter Mary Hamilton and myself.
Washington called her “a true blessing in my life.” Comerchero wrote that “she is clearly among our county’s finest and most important citizens.” Rahn noted that “despite her humble nature and reluctance for recognition, everyone needs to know just how important Kathleen is to us and to me …” Macarro told Hamilton that she “showed respect and understanding of the importance of our history, our cultural traditions and our people.”
Of her remarkable efforts, I wrote: “She’s done this with as little fanfare as possible, staying behind the scenes the same way the Wizard of Oz hid in that famous movie.”
In an interview after the book’s presentation, Hamilton was typically humble.
“It’s not my legacy,” she insisted. “I happened to hop on popular issues. It wasn’t me. It was everybody.”
Hamilton said she was shocked by the book and the celebration.
“If I’d have known, I probably wouldn’t have come.”
So typical.
Committee member Adkins said during the luncheon that the book was wrapped and included a note that said not to open it yet. The reveal came when she unwrapped the book.
“The feeling in the room was one of longtime comradery and mutual respect,” Adkins said.
Hamilton and husband John came to the area in 1978. She moved to Riverside last year to be closer to family.
She said others also deserve credit for her environmental successes, citing Pete Dangermond, Ray Johnson, Jim Clemens and committee member Miyamoto.
In her full-page tribute to Hamilton, Miyamoto said the activist “always attributed the success of these events to others but the truth was, they were successful because of her tireless efforts to organize and rally people.”
Hamilton said the anti-quarry group — known as SOS for short — was surely the one that had the most impact of the many in which she was a part. It was a selfless team of people who never bickered and worked nonstop to help defeat the dreaded quarry, she said.
“I could have had a meeting at 3 in the morning and people would have shown up,” she said, fondly.
No doubt Hamilton would have been there too.
Reach Carl Love at carllove4@yahoo.com.
