It's hard to recall which you'd noticed first about meeting Willy Chamberlin — his big, easygoing smile or his really big, shiny belt buckle.
His smile was genuine and always the same — the natural smile of a man who knows who he is and where he's from. A scion of a pioneer California family, Willy grew up on a ranch north of Los Olivos, dotted with valley oaks, polled Herefords, and grasshopper wells pumping heavy oil from fractured Monterey shale.
Willy's belt buckles were rarely the same because he had so many of them, championship prizes won at team penning competitions from Santa Barbara's Fiesta Rodeo to San Francisco's Cow Palace.