Mary Case Dekker

1937 - 2020

BORN

1937

DIED

2020

Mary Dekker Obituary

Mary Case Dekker, an artist and advocate of historic preservation, died peacefully on December 6th in San Rafael. Born in Morristown, New Jersey on March 8, 1937, she grew up on a working cattle ranch in Buffalo, Wyoming, and her early education took place in a one-room schoolhouse. After attending the University of Colorado, Boulder, she studied fashion illustration at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, where she met fellow artist, Fred Dekker, then moved on to the Parsons School of Design in New York City. Following a coast-to-coast courtship, Mary and Fred were married in 1958 in Sheridan, Wyoming. The couple then moved to Marin County, where they became members of the Marin Society of Artists and began exhibiting their work throughout the Bay Area, where Mary won awards for both painting and sculpture. In 1974, Mary and Fred established Marin Heritage, a non-profit which successfully lobbied to save San Rafael's landmark, 11-acre Robert Dollar estate (Falkirk) from demolition by developers. Mary served as the Curator of the Falkirk Cultural Center and Galleries from 1974 to 1982 before stepping down to return to her own art and education. In 1986, she served as an Artist in Residence at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, and in 1989 received her long-overdue BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Exploring a wide variety of media, from assemblage and art from found objects to large-scale pastels, landscapes, and deeply personal and social commentary -- her subsequent work was featured in numerous solo, invitational and juried exhibition shows from California to Oregon. In 1990, Mary and her husband fell in love with the Sonoma-Mendocino countryside, and bought a parcel of acreage on which they built a barn/studio and a house they moved into in 1996. After her husband's death, Mary moved back to San Rafael in 2012, settling at Aldersly Retirement Community, where she passed at the age of 83. She is survived by her sister, Elise Case Arneal of Albuquerque, New Mexico; as well as her three sons, Fred of Studio City, CA; Christopher of Tumwater, WA; and Michael of Brooklyn, NY; and her two grandchildren, Dashiell Jones Dekker and Lulu Mercedes Dekker, both 16.

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Published by Marin Independent Journal on Dec. 9, 2020.

Memories and Condolences
for Mary Dekker

Sponsored by MarinIJ.com.

6 Entries

Cynthia Landecker

December 3, 2021

I still remember Mary with respect and joy, and wish she were still in our lives.

Renee Carriere

December 27, 2020

Dear Michael, Chris and Fred

I am so sorry to hear of your mom’s passing. I will always remember what a good friend she was and how wonderful and creative she was in so many ways.The Powder River drawings, one new pair of Mary Jane’s once a year for the trip to New York. We played with play dough, put sculptures together with Lego on your kitchen table and so much more from when we first met at nursery school on, Mrs. Egenburger and meeting inside San Quentin while our old nursery school building at the high school was being fixed- trunk checks and once overs from the guards. Then we moved to Harcourt street and we were neighbors, at the start of Kindergarten, it was a wonderful time.

All the years we spent come to mind with so many stories to share. Emily and Gabby’s “wedding” and your mom introducing me to the “kids” all looking like him. His gesture of anointing your front door over and over again- we did try to get him to stop. Sitting in your backyard with a glass of wine watching the plate glass door to the studio slow-ley slow-ley crack over more than a weeks time. Climbing into a window at Falkirk and your mom falling in love with the place “ We must rescue it” !!! and then she did just that. New Years with water being thrown out our front door at midnight - a Puerto Rican custom- all over your mom and dad because they had come over to say Happy New Year! Your mom putting together the grand Sculpture at Falkirk Exhibition in 1980 and insisting I be in it. So many dinners- at our houses – piano playing – Oh dear- Mr. Wigell !!! Your exchange student- Chia? ! Your parents trip to Japan very tall Mary! Car Dodge, Zardoz and so much more- The ghost up stairs??? The kitchen remodel !!! The trip she invited me on to Mendocino where she was to judge an art show. It was the first time seeing the beautiful hill top that would become there home exquisitely placed and built. The trips up to envision it all and have dinner together. Calling your mom after she and your dad helped me move to Starr Road and telling her I didn’t know where to put my grandmas dining room hutch and her telling me over the phone where it should go and it stayed there till I moved five years ago to Sebastopol. Her drawing up the architectural plans to that little 1000 foot home on a half acre in the middle of – nowhere- in 1988.
I will always keep our friendship in my heart,
Renee [Lopez] Carriere

Julia Landecker

December 16, 2020

In 1986 Mary was in charge of a house tour in San Rafael. She helped my mom get her house ready and she had exquisite taste and great ideas. But when we saw what Mary had done to her own house, well, that was the best...she did a Christmas tree in the theme of a partridge in a pear tree, and she hand painted all the pears. I was absolutely struck by it, and I have been doing pears in various mediums in my own artwork for over 30 years thanks to that tree. It was also during the set up for the tour that she gave us some lace from curtains from her family home in Buffalo. My family was originally from Buffalo, so it was always a treasure to me-and I still have it. I am so sorry to hear of her passing-she was truly an inspiration.

-Julia Landecker

Cynthia Landecker

December 15, 2020

We loved her vibrancy, her artistic gifts, and her passion for those she loved and the causes she believed in. Her watchword phrase for Marin Heritage was a firm "The original architect was always right!" We all had fun when Mary was around.

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Karyn Jordan

December 14, 2020

Fred, Chris, and Mike. I am so sorry to read about the passing of your mom. I jave such great memories of San Rafael Junior Theater, and both your parents helping paint the sets and holding cast parties. Im so sorry for your loss.

GEORGE SILVESTRI

December 9, 2020

I had the pleasure of being introduced to Mary in mid 1974 by her San Rafael neighbor,Bryce Anderson, the then MarinIJ editor who had attended the San Rafael City Council meeting where I had spoken in opposition to the then pending plan to demolish the historic residence we called "the Dollar Mansion" (now "Falkirk"). We soon were joined by other like minded people & formalized our group as "Marin Heritage" which supported the City's adoption of a bond measure used to purchase & maintain the Falkirk property. Mary & Fred remained hands-on involved with projects at Falkirk for many years & we are thankful for their legacy & example.

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