Deputy Roland Scrivner was killed in a golf cart accident
on Nov. 29, 2008, at the Rossmoor Golf Course. (Family Photo)
on Nov. 29, 2008, at the Rossmoor Golf Course. (Family Photo)
Update: Berkeley Fire Deputy Chief Roland Scrivner, 79, died in a golf cart
accident Sunday, according to city of Berkeley spokeswoman Mary Kay
Clunies-Ross,
Scrivner joined the Berkley Fire Department in 1951 and served for 29 years,
retiring on Dec. 26, 1980.
Memorial services: Monday at 11 a.m at the the Rossmoor retirement community in Walnut Creek, where Scrivner and his wife have lived for 23 years.
Scrivner, 79, a retired Berkeley firefighter whose pursuits in acting once landed him a role in a Francis Ford Coppola film, died early Sunday from injuries he suffered in a golf cart crash Saturday at the Rossmoor Golf Course.
Inez Scrivner, his wife of 56 years, said her husband was always quick with a joke and had a knack for performing for audiences, both on and off the stage.
"He was a ham," Inez Scrivner said.
For many years, though, Scrivner was a firefighter first, his wife said. The Newark, N.J., native attended UC Berkeley for two years before leaving to support his recently widowed mother. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, Scrivner trained to become a Berkeley firefighter and stuck with it until he retired as a deputy chief in the early 1980s.
Between blazes, Inez Scrivner said her husband was a stage presence in the local theater scene spanning Walnut Creek, Richmond, Berkeley and San Francisco. He reprised the role of Alfred Doolittle in five separate productions of "My Fair Lady."
Upon retiring, Scrivner's acting career gained a broader profile. He dabbled in short-lived 1980s television shows before he landed the supporting role of Oscar Beasley in the 1988
Francis Ford Coppola true-story film "Tucker: The Man And His Dream." The movie starred Jeff Bridges as the titular character whose revolutionary ideas for cheap and feature-packed automobiles in the 1940s were quashed by the era's reigning auto giants.
As the acting bug subsided later in his life, Scrivner began hitting the links as an avid golfer. Inez Scrivner said she and her husband golfed regularly at the Rossmoor community they made their home 23 years ago after moving from Berkeley.
It was during a routine golf outing Saturday morning about 9:10 a.m. that Scrivner was riding in a golf cart with a friend driving, crossing Rossmoor Parkway between the No. 6 and No. 7 holes. According to police and family, the pair were almost across the street when the cart was struck by a sedan, throwing off both riders.
The driver of the car that struck the cart was not injured, and has not been cited in the accident, which remains under investigation.
The cart's driver suffered minor injuries. But Scrivner was pinned underneath the car and suffered multiple injuries. Inez Scrivner said that Saturday night, her husband appeared to be stable at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek. The next morning, Scrivner stopped breathing and could not be revived, his wife said.
Inez Scrivner was somber Monday, but seemed to be buoyed by the memories she shared with the man she met on a blind date when he needed someone to accompany him to the firemen's ball.
"I'm going to cry in a bit," she said. "Every time I see something that reminds of him, I cry a bit."
Source: www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_11113392?source=rss
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