Charles Lee Tilden (July 17, 1857 – November 12, 1950) was an attorney and businessman in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

who served on the first Board of Directors of the

East Bay Regional Park District The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is a special district operating in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California, within the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains and operates a system of regional parks which ...

. One of the first three parks in the District was named for him:

Tilden Regional Park Charles Lee Tilden Regional Park, also known as Tilden Park or Tilden, [], is a regional park in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. It is between the Berkeley Hills and San Pablo R ...

. Tilden was born in the Sierra foothills town of Chile Gulch,

Calaveras County Calaveras County (), officially the County of Calaveras, is a county in both the Gold Country and High Sierra regions of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 45,292. The county seat is San Andreas. Angels Ca ...

on July 17, 1857 to Harmon J. Tilden and Mary Jane Lee. His father was a judge. The Tildens moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in 1865. Tilden graduated from Lowell High School in 1874 and from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1878. He received his law degree from

Hastings College of Law The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings) is a public law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the first law school of the University of California as ...

in 1881. While attending the University of California, he joined a campus unit which was eventually incorporated into the

California National Guard The California National Guard is part of the National Guard of the United States, a dual federal-state military reserve force. The CA National Guard has three components: the CA Army National Guard, CA Air National Guard, and CA State Guard. ...

. His affiliation with the National Guard continued through the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (clock ...

, in which he participated. He left the Guard with the rank of major and was often addressed as "Major Tilden" for the remainder of his life. Tilden married Lilly Mitchell (''nee'' Von Schmidt; October 12, 1859 – November 8, 1946) on June 9, 1892. The Tildens resided in

Alameda An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada *Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan **Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile ...

. Tilden Way at the southeast end of Alameda is named for him. The Tildens' son, Charles Lee Tilden, Jr. (June 4, 1894 – September 21, 1968) was a member of the United States Olympic rugby team in 1920 at Antwerp and 1924 at Paris, winning the gold medal in both Olympiads. Mrs. Tilden had two daughters from her previous marriage. In the 1930s, Tilden led the effort to create a system of regional parks in the

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa countie ...

, and served as the first President of the

Board of Directors. He was also a

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

Trustee. Tilden died at age 93 on November 12, 1950 and was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

References

* ''Berkeley Daily Gazette'', November 13, 1950, p. 1

External links

Tilden genealogy

Lowell alumni

Picture of Tilden's Lumber Business in Richmond
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tilden, Charles Lee 1857 births 1950 deaths People from the San Francisco Bay Area Burials at Mountain View Cemetery (Oakland, California) East Bay Regional Park District University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Hastings College of the Law alumni Tilden Regional Park Lowell High School (San Francisco) alumni