Brent A. Hartley, former manager of Baltimore's three watersheds who during his career was known by the sobriquet “Lord of the Lakes,” died Friday from pancreatic cancer at his Catonsville home. He was 86.

“He liked everything about his work, and he took responsibility personally for the reservoirs. He cared for them as if they were his own domain,” said his brother, Fran Hartley of Catonsville.

“He loved the outdoors and ... was very focused on his job,” said a son, Brent F. Hartley of Columbia. “He liked the responsibility of caring for the water and enjoyed being in the field. Also, there was something different each day about the job.”

The son of Brent Augusta Hartley, a printer, and Lillian Hartley, a homemaker, Brent Alan Hartley was born in Baltimore and raised on Edgewood Street.

After graduating in 1948 from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, Mr. Hartley began his 45-year career with the city's Department of Public Works' Bureau of Engineering as a draftsman. He later rose to become supervisor of the drafting section.

Mr. Hartley also enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1948 and served for 17 years. He obtained the rank of chief petty officer and was named the Outstanding Enlisted Naval Reservist in 1963 by the Navy League's Baltimore chapter.

For the last 20 years of his career with public works, until retiring in 1993, Mr. Hartley was watershed manager for the Bureau of Water and Waste Water in the Department of Public Works.

In that role he was guardian of three upland reservoirs — Loch Raven, Prettyboy and Liberty — which together comprise 17,580 acres of city-owned land and furnish drinking water for the Baltimore metropolitan area.

Also under Mr. Hartley's purview was monitoring water quality in the lakes and tributary streams, forest management, recreation and security. The three reservoirs include some 200 miles of roads and 178 miles of shoreline.

Among his other duties was overseeing the sawmill operation at Liberty Reservoir, where reservoir trees that had reached their maximum growth and age were milled into lumber that was used in underground city utility construction projects for shoring.

“He was very conscientious in his work and a good supervisor,” said Finksburg resident Richard J. “Dick” Kretzschmar, who retired in 1996 from the Bureau of Water and Waste Water as chief of the water division. “He interacted well with county residents and government. He was a real asset.”

The human factor was an important aspect of Mr. Hartley's job. He contended with illegal swimmers — swimming is not permitted in reservoirs nor is ice fishing in the winter months — skaters, vandalism, trash and raucous gatherings that often included drinking and drugs.

In 1980, Mr. Hartley told The Baltimore Sun that work crews in one month's time removed 20 tons of trash, mostly discarded beer cans and bottles.

He also had to deal with urban sprawl, housing developments and shopping centers, which are not conducive to good watershed management, Mr. Hartley told The Sun in a 1977 interview.

“Illegal swimming was one of the things he found annoying and so was illegal hunting,” said his brother, who succeeded him as watershed manager. “There was a lot of partying at Loch Raven because it's so close to the city, so we had to have the county police help us patrol the reservoir.”

In order to discourage late-night parking and parties, Mr. Hartley had parking areas and woodland roads closed off.

All-terrain vehicles, bicyclists and horseback riders also create challenges. Wheeled vehicles “form ruts that get filled by the rain and then this muddy mess and sediment gets into the reservoir,” his brother said.

Sometimes cleaning up a reservoir called for extraordinary measures, such as when Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972 washed several freight cars and spools of paper from the Congoleum Corp. plant in Finksburg into Liberty Reservoir.

“He had to get a crane to pull out the freight cars,” his son said.

Throughout his career, Mr. Hartley worked at keeping the reservoirs a wholesome recreational destination for families as well as fishermen, hikers and nature lovers.

“He was very organized and diplomatic when it came to dealing with people. He believed in public service and did whatever he could to defuse situations without conflict,” his brother said. “He really could handle people.”

Mr. Hartley volunteered with Beans and Bread and had been active with the Father's Club at Cardinal Gibbons High School, where his four sons attended. After the club disbanded, he and several other members formed the “Glad Men of Song,” and performed at area nursing homes until 2015.

He was a wildfowl carver and enjoyed fishing.

“He liked fishing, but not while he was on the job,” his son said. “He also liked feeding the Canadian geese at lunchtime.”

In 1965, Mr. Hartley married the former Virginia Marie Feild, a widow, who had six children ages 6 to 13. In 1966, they had a son of their own.

Mrs. Hartley died in 2011.

He was a former parishioner of St. Laurence Roman Catholic Church in Woodlawn, where he had been president of the parish council.

Mr. Hartley was a communicant of St. Gabriel's Roman Catholic Church, 6950 Dogwood Road, Windsor Mill, where a Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 11 a.m. today.

In addition to his son and brother, Mr. Hartley is survived by four stepsons, Thomas Fitzgerald of Arcadia, Michael Fitzgerald of Hagerstown, John Fitzgerald of Boiling Springs, Pa., and Daniel Fitzgerald of Bethlehem, Ga.; two stepdaughters, Kathleen Schleicher of Catonsville and Christine Hushbeck of Gamber; 14 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

frasmussen@baltsun.com