Founder
The Augustan Society, Inc., was founded by Rodney Hartwell (1938–2006) and a few friends. While the contributions of those friends are not insignificant, we lack sufficient data to even offer their names. We hope this lack will be corrected. For many years, he was also ably assisted by his wife, Patricia Crossland Hartwell until her death in 1994.
Rodney was something of a polymath, with expertise in all of the Augustan subject areas, plus publication, editing, and organizational skills. The title he held varied widely over his term, with Director, Executive Director, Coordinator, and Princeps Societas prominent among them. All meant the same thing: Rodney was in charge of all.
His legal relationship with the Society also varied, at times being a volunteer, a direct employee, and a contractor, the last often through The Hartwell Company, of which he was the sole proprietor, and generally the entire staff. These various approaches were efforts to address the evolving legal situation, his financial needs, copyright and investment limitations, and other factors. They did not represent any substantial change in what he did or how he did it, the copyright of various publications being the only visible indicator.
He also organized and operated other groups, including the Octavian Society, Heraldry Society of the USA, International Chivalric Institute, Association of Knights Bachelor (Yugoslavian), The St. John Volunteer Corps, and held high office in several orders of chivalry, multiple chivalric memberships and honors, and kept close company with the late King Peter II of Yugoslavia and the organizations he sponsored.
A wholly inadequate biography and remembrance of him was published in The Augustan Omnibus #118. Much more data remains to be added to this brief summary.
