August 2025 - History Corner

The History Corner

#191 in an ongoing series about the history of the Hillside Club

Number 33 in a series of articles profiling notable Hillside Club members of the past.

Arthur Starr Eakle (1862-1931)

Fannie V. Eakle (c1870-1937)

Club members for 26 years (Arthur, 1905-31) and 32 years (Fannie, 1905-1937)

Arthur Starr Eakle was a mineralogist with a long career at the University of California, Berkeley. Born in Washington, D.C., he earned his doctorate in 1896 from the University of Munich. He joined the UC faculty in 1903 as an associate professor, and became full professor in 1919. He served as president of the Mineralogical Society of America in 1925. In 1930, he became professor emeritus and moved to Hawaii to do research in partnership with the University of Hawaii. In June 1931, he contracted influenza which worsened into pneumonia, and he died in Honolulu in July 5^th.

The Academic Senate wrote this in their obituary: “Professor Eakle contributed much to science by the discovery of new minerals. He was highly esteemed by the mineralogists of the world, was a member of the Mineralogical Society of America and its president in 1925. Of a genial disposition, kindly, considerate, obliging and cooperative, he was active in social and civic affairs. The community in which he lived no less than the University is the poorer for his passing; and his colleagues in the Academic Senate mourn his loss.”

Arthur Eakle married Fannie Viola Kinney in Cuyahoga, Ohio in August 1899; little is known about her. They had one daughter, Alice F. Eakle, in 1906.

During their long tenure as Club members, Arthur and Fannie both served on the Board of Directors. Arthur was Club President in 1914 and again in 1921; Fannie was Director-at-large in 1912 and Secretary 1920-22. The Eakles lived at 1516 Euclid until 1923, when their home was destroyed in the 1923 Berkeley Fire. They moved to a house on Marin Ave. for a few years, then back to a new house on the same block of Euclid.