Monroe Wakefield Kirkman

MONROE WAKEFIELD KIRKMAN, son of AGNES REID MONROE and LESTER WILLIAMS KIRKMAN, was born June 24, 1924 in Sacramento County, California,¹⁰⁰ and died March 14, 2007 in La Jolla, San Diego, California.^{168, 56}

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Education

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San Diego Union-Tribune, March 16, 2007¹⁶⁸

Monroe Kirkman, 82 sailor became estate attorney

When Japanese planes attacked the fuel supply tanker USS Saranac in the SouthPacific in 1945, Monroe Wakefield Kirkman pulled out his .45-caliber handgun and returned fire.

"He said it didn't do any good, but it sure did make him feel better," said Tom Thayer, a friend.

Mr. Kirkman died Wednesday at his La Jolla home after a short bout of pneumonia. He was 82.

Mr. Kirkman was an attorney who had specialized in estate planning, wills and trusts for 30 years. He was still working one day a week at the time of his death.

Born in Sacramento on June 24, 1924, Mr. Kirkman spent one semester at Sacramento Junior College before deciding his heart wasn't into getting a formal education.

"I wanted to go to sea, like the boys in the books I had been reading," he wrote in a history of his life.

At 17, he was too young to be a seaman, but he got a job working on the passenger liner Matsonia, which sailed between San Francisco, Honolulu and Los Angeles.

The Matsonia later was converted to a carrier transporting American servicemen to South America and the South Pacific and returning to the United States with the wounded.

After a brief stint in the Merchant Marine, Mr. Kirkman was commissioned in 1944 as an ensign in the Navy and served for two years. He was reactivated in 1950 for a 13-month stint during the Korean War.

After the war, Mr. Kirkman attended Stanford University and Stanford Law School, moving to San Diego after he passed the bar to work for Luce, Forward, Kunzel & Scripps. He spent five years with the firm and two more with Reed, Vaughn & Brockway before setting up his own practice in 1960.

Mr. Kirkman originally practiced business law, serving the tuna industry in San Diego. But when San Diego canneries closed in the 1970s, Mr. Kirkman began his estate-planning practice.

Mr. Kirkman was well-known in La Jolla social circles and decided to celebrate his 75th birthday in 1999 with a party in Venice, Italy, at the landmark Hotel Danieli on the Grand Canal. He sent elaborate invitations to his friends in San Diego.

"I think he thought he was going to get away from us," said Bill Hargreaves,an attorney who shared office space with Mr. Kirkman for 14 years. "But about 50 of us accepted, and he got stuck with a huge dinner bill."

Mr. Kirkman has no survivors.

His remains will be cremated and the ashes spread in the garden of the home where he lived for 45 years. No services are planned.

Census Records

Date	Location	Enumerated Names
April 12, 19301033	Sacramento, Sacramento, California	Lester Williams Kirkman Agnes Reid Monroe Robert Bruce Kirkman Monroe Wakefield Kirkman Jennie Alice Reid
April 4, 19402541	Sacramento, Sacramento, California	Lester Williams Kirkman Agnes Reid Monroe Monroe Wakefield Kirkman Jennie Alice Reid