Toolin’ Around Town: Charlie Moller, from rocks to ‘rock star’

Charlie Moller was born, April 28, 1930, during a total eclipse of the sun.

The Argus-Courier described the darkened sky as an “awesome spectacle” that sent chickens home to roost, while scientists in airplanes photographed the “phenomenon.”

Astrologically, Moller is a quadruple Taurus.

His grandfather, Michael Moller, was born near the Danish-German border and came to the United States via steamer. When he arrived in San Francisco, he jumped ship and made his way to the Alaskan gold fields where he became a dogsled driver for the U.S. Postal Service. In 1898, Moller used some of his Alaskan gold nuggets to buy a 200-acre parcel in Two Rock and sent for his childhood sweetheart, Christina. On the property, now Moller Lane, the couple built a home and outbuildings, had an egg ranch, dairy cows and grew potatoes.

Michael and Christina’s fifth child, out of 13, was Chris.

Chris Moller grew up to be superintendent of Poultry Producers of Central California. In 1941, he and his wife, Ruth, moved to 915 D Street with their son, Charlie.

Charlie Moller learned to play the clarinet and saxophone when he was nine, showing unusual musical talent. By junior high, his skills were so apparent that he was accepted into the Petaluma High School music department and the school band by PHS music director George Hatfield.

“That was a big thing for me,” said Moller. “I felt I was just as good as the older kids and after a few months I was named first clarinet.”

Moller’s promotion was followed by an appointment to drum major during his junior and senior years.

“But I wanted to start a band,” he went on. “Together with Ernie Small, who also played the clarinet and sax, we decided to start a big band. In 1946, through an arrangement with the Petaluma Youth Recreation Association, our 16-piece band, including five saxophones, started playing at school dances. In 1947, at the East-West Shrine Game at Kezar Stadium, which invited dozens of high school bands, I led a thousand-piece band that covered the whole football field, in the National Anthem.”

In high school, a musical group he formed was playing at the Portuguese Hall. When their performance ended, the audience persuaded them to continue playing by throwing money onto the stage.

“When I got home I showed my father the $50 I had earned, which was a big sum in those days,” recalls Moller. “He said to me, ‘That’s more money than I made today.’”

At Stanford University, where he was first chair in the symphony orchestra and the drum major who led the marching band on the field at the 1952 Rose Bowl (Illinois 40, Stanford 7), Moller intended to become a doctor, but changed course and graduated with a degree in biological sciences. He went on to graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley.

When he was 22, supported by a UC grant through fisheries and wildlife management, he spent two months “wandering the peaks” of the Sierra Madre on horseback and pack mules, classifying specimens of rainbow trout.

In 1954, Moller married Gwen Hein, whose father Melvin and uncle Mark established the Hein Bros. quarry. Drafted into the army, Moller was sent to Fort Hood, Texas. There, in order to avoid a transfer, he became the concertmaster of the Third Corps Band.

“For about five weeks, I drove my wife crazy preparing for the audition,” he recalled.

When he returned to Petaluma, Moller was offered a job at the quarry.

“I didn’t know anything about breaking rocks,” he allowed, “but I’d joined the Teamsters Union in high school and then became an operating engineer.” Moller eventually became secretary-treasurer of the company.

“I was the man in charge of running the plant,” said Moller. “Hein Bros. poured concrete for the planned nuclear power plant at Bodega Head, the downtown Petaluma branch of Bank of America and Casa Grande High School. We provided 100,000 tons of asphalt for the roadway repaving between Petaluma and Novato.”

He retired in 1990 after 34 years with the firm.

Divorced and remarried to long-time Petaluma High and Casa Grande High teacher Barbara Ebbesen, Moller was reintroduced to music in the early 1990s when the Petaluma Municipal Band formed.

“That’s what got me started again,” he said.

Moller now plays with Swing and a Miss, People of Note, Russian River Ramblers, The Notables and Turning Basin Crew, a six-piece band scheduled to play at the Santa Rosa Veterans Building on Nov. 10, the anniversary of the founding of the Marine Corps.

In a uncommon blend of working career and hobby, Moller became a “rock star” when a photo of him operating an antique dump truck alongside a rustic Hug steam shovel at the quarry (now called Quarry Heights) was used as the gatefold picture on legendary jazz musician Miles Davis’ 1975 double album, “Dig.”

(Harlan Osborne’s ‘Toolin’ Around Town’ runs every other week in the Argus-Courier. You can reach him at harlan@sonic.net)