Carroll Kenneth Hurd knew how to reinvent himself. The World War
II veteran was a photographer, sold eggs to Nob Hill Foods, drove a
truck, started a local newspaper, then contributed mightily to the
Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.
Carroll Kenneth Hurd knew how to reinvent himself. The World War II veteran was a photographer, sold eggs to Nob Hill Foods, drove a truck, started a local newspaper, then contributed mightily to the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.
And it was his involvement with the Chamber of Commerce that touched so many people.
For Katherine Filice, owner of Articulate Solutions who met Hurd in the early 1990s while working on the Focus magazine, it was the times he would pick up her daughter at the bus stop.
“For me, he was always there,” Filice said. “No matter what you needed or when you needed it, he was there.”
Hurd died Monday night. He was 93.
“He died at home with his family by his side,” said daughter Carole Barcellos. “He was a good man and a good father.”
In the early 1980s, Hurd got involved with the Chamber of Commerce and would spend hours taking photographs and helping others lay out the Focus magazine.
“Carroll was the mainstay of the development of the Focus,” said J. Chris Mickartz, owner of InfoPower. “That energy and excitement rubbed off on me. He had a big impact on how I see the publication industry.” Today, she still is involved publishing the chamber’s magazine.
Born in 1915 in Seaside, Ore., Hurd had a high school graduating class totaled 13.
Upon graduation, he went to art school in Ventura where he learned the art of photography, a love that would stay with him throughout his life. He worked in southern California at various newspapers and ended up in 1939 in Salinas as a reporter and photographer.
“I always think of him as a newspaper man,” said Barcellos, who lives with her husband Glen in San Jose.
It was in Salinas where he met Ida, a receptionist. They married April 1941 and she worked for years as a receptionist at the Gilroy Dispatch. Then he went to work for the San Jose Herald in 1941 before he went to New York, where he worked for Associated Press for one year.
But after being drafted, he chose to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. In January 1945, he was sent overseas. He worked in reconnaissance ferreting out German soldiers in Belgium and France, Barcellos said.
In 1946 he returned and went back to work at the San Jose Herald as the city editor. In 1951 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. At the time he was editor of the farm and garden section.
“I can remember the first three-color picture they did,” Barcellos said. “”It was a really big deal. He was so excited about it.”
But after learning he had TB, Hurd couldn’t get life insurance, so he bought a chicken farm in San Martin, his daughter said.
In 1963 he left the San Jose Herald to devote himself full time to his ranching duties, and he bought a route delivering eggs and on the route was Nob Hill Foods in Morgan Hill. As Nob Hill Foods grew, Hurd Farms grew, Barcellos said.
That was where he met Linda Trelut, Nob Hill founder and Michael Bonfante’s sister.
“I’m stunned and sad,” she said. “He was supposed to make his next reinvention.”
And after government officials built U.S. 101 through the middle of the ranch in the 1970s, he reinvented himself again. He learned how to drive a truck, got his license and drove for Nob Hill and others.
And he wasn’t finished with the reinventions. Once Nob Hill Foods sold, he started his freelance photography business and began working with the Chamber of Commerce and their Focus magazine in the early 1980s.
“I believe it was started and he helped really get it going,” Barcellos said.
Even after his 70th birthday he continued his education. He learned all about computers and digital photography.
“He loved digital and he embraced technology,” Filice said.
But it wasn’t just the learning that excited him. He also loved to teach.
For Mickartz, he was a mentor.
“He took me under his wing and he was the type of guy who would show you what he knew,” she said. “He had an excitement for publications and people, and it kind of rubbed off on me.”
Barcellos said her father loved teaching.
“He knew something about a lot of things,” she said.
Mickartz, who to this day puts out the Chamber’s Focus magazine, said Hurd cared about people so much, she used to call him “Care, Care.”
“He was a good man,” she said.
Filice echoed similar sentiments.
“He was there for everybody and he never asked for anything,” Filice said. “He wasn’t there to be noticed he was there to pitch in. He loved learning and growing.”
After he retired in 2004, Hurd retired and after a fall moved to San Jose where he lived with his daughter and son-in-law.
“(Glen) was his primary care giver,” Barcellos said. “He wasn’t just a son-in-law. They were best friends.”
“He was a friend,” Glen Barcellos said. “He had a good sense of humor. He was just a good guy.”
Hurd is survived by his daughter and her husband, Carole and Glen Barcellos, of San Jose; son, Paul Hurd, of Fort Bragg, California; grandchildren, Kevin Barcellos and his wife Kim, Cari Barcellos and Robin Barcellos; and six great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his wife Ida and two brothers, Elliot and Douglas.
The Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Tuesday July 29 and Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday July 30 at St. Mary Church.
