REBECCA WOOD WATKIN

Rebecca ("Becky") Wood Watkin Architect and longtime activist for environmental, public housing, and other progressive causes, died quietly in her sleep on December 19, 2010, at the age of 97 in La Jolla. Becky was born on April 4, 1913 in Portland, Oregon, the daughter of Erskine Wood, an attorney, and Rebecca Biddle Wood. She earned her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 1933, and a B. Arch. from the Architecture School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1937. At that time, Penn did not admit women to the Architecture School, so she enrolled in the School of Fine Arts. There she took all the courses required for an architecture degree, and together with two other young women, insisted that the university confer a Bachelor of Architecture degree, making them the first women to receive that degree from Penn's distinguished Architecture School. With her degree in hand, she moved to Sausalito; and after writing sixty job applications, got work as a draftswoman. After the required four years of drafting work, she got her California architectural license in 1944 and opened her own practice in 1951. As one of the first women to graduate in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and one of the few women licensed to practice in California, Becky used the respect she had earned in her chosen field to benefit others less fortunate. Combining her professional life and her talents as a civic leader, she helped found and lead the Marin Ecumenical Association for Housing, which has provided hundreds of low-income housing units in the county. As a member of the Marin County Planning Commission in the 1970s, she was a leading advocate for environmentally sensitive development and affordable housing. Her dogged determination to recognize and address the needs of all citizens had a significant impact on raising public awareness and community planning. Among Becky's many architectural works, both commercial and residential, is the summer camp for Girl Scouts. This project also provided an illustration of her commitment to volunteerism and just getting the job done. When there was fear of erosion of a hillside at the camp, and the Girl Scouts could not afford to pay someone to do it, Becky seeded the hillside herself. Always active in public affairs, Becky Watkin was a stalwart of Democratic Party politics from a time when Marin Democrats were an endangered minority. In 1952 and 1956, she was co-chair of Adlai Stevenson's local campaign. In 1960, she was John Kennedy's precinct chairwoman in Marin. In 1968, Becky was co-chair of Marin's Eugene McCarthy for President Committee, and in 1972 she headed George McGovern's local presidential campaign. Finally, in 1976, she backed a winner, running Jimmy Carter's primary campaign and serving as a delegate to the National Convention. Becky also served as a mentor and confidante for a number of public servants. In 1997, Assembly Member Kerry Mazzoni recognized her contributions by naming her California Legislature Woman of the Year for her district. In one of her favorite stories, Becky told of the time when a young Barbara Boxer came into a Marin campaign office asking if she could help. With her characteristic directness, Becky asked: "Can you type?" Barbara allowed that having been a journalist, she could; and Becky set her to work typing address labels. Thus did Senator Boxer's career in California Democratic politics begin. Rebecca Wood married architect Joseph Esherick in 1938; they had three children before divorcing in 1951. She married Harold Watkin, a landscape contractor, in 1958; he died in 1981. Becky Watkin lived in the lovely house she designed in Kent Woodlands from 1950 to 2003, when she moved to the White Sands retirement home in La Jolla, California. She loved the outdoors, hiking in Oregon and skiing as a member of the Over the Hill Gang until age 83. Always a lover of music, she sang with the Marin Chorus until she was in her eighties, and regularly attended and supported the symphony and opera both in San Francisco and in San Diego. She is survived by her daughter, Lisa, of Berkeley; son, Joseph Wharton, and daughter-in-law, Ye Wa, of San Diego; and son, Peter, and daughter-in-law, Trylla, of Albuquerque, NM; grandchildren, Joseph Scott, Christopher, Milena, Katrina, and Lisl; and five great-grandchildren.