Raymond G. Handley

Raymond G. Handley Silicon Valley Pioneer Raymond G. Handley of Los Altos Hills, CA died peacefully at home with his loving family at his side on June 14, 2009. Born in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana on June 2, 1923, raised in Georgetown, British Guiana until he came to the United States at sixteen to attend school at the University of Maryland. In 1947, Ray Handley moved to California. He became partners with Ray Renault, an established San Francisco real estate broker, and in 1952 they founded Renault & Handley Industrial and Commercial Real Estate in the Silicon Valley. Renault & Handley developed the first buildings for such high-tech pioneers as Intel, Fairchild, National Semiconductor and Raytheon. After the death of Ray Renault in 1965, Renault & Handley became a sole proprietorship and successfully continues today as the oldest industrial real estate brokerage in the Santa Clara Valley. Always ahead of his time, Ray Handley developed the first solar powered building in Silicon Valley in the mid 1970's. After his brother, William Jules Handley, became the US Ambassador to Mali, Africa in 1962, Raymond became interested in the country and wanted to make a difference in the lives of its people, drilling more than 50 water wells for Dogon villages through 300 feet of granite during the 1980's. A vibrant, adventurous and highly successful developer of Silicon Valley, Raymond became a keen collector of art and traveled extensively. His journeys took him from the highest mountains of Tibet to the most remote parts of Papua New Guinea and Africa. In the mid 1970's his passion lead him to establish Folk Art International/Xanadu Tribal Arts, an ethnographic art business, which allowed him to travel the world purchasing art and antiques for his galleries and established a non-profit educational foundation which currently supplies over 50,000 Northern California school children with ethnic study programs and materials. His love for real estate and art led him to purchase the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in San Francisco, the prototype for the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, for his art business in the late 1990's. Xanadu Gallery now specializes in fine quality antiquities from Asia and the Himalayas as well as some ethnographic works of art. He has been a generous donor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. In 1957 Raymond built and opened Dinah's Garden Hotel in Palo Alto, CA adding a Trader Vic's Restaurant in 2001. He is also the owner of Handley Cellars, an award winning winery, in Mendocino County near Philo, CA with his winemaker daughter, Milla Handley. Raymond Handley is survived by his wife, Marsha Vargas Handley; his daughters Julia Handley (Honolulu/Menlo Park) and Milla Handley (Philo, CA); granddaughters Megan Handley Warren and Milla Louisa McClellen; predeceased by his wife of over 50 years, Milla Louise Hart Handley; and his brother, William Jules Handley. Services on Friday, June 19th, 2009, 1:00 pm at Spangler Mortuaries, Los Altos, CA. 650-948-6619.