Charlotte Olmsted Kursh

Charlotte Olmsted Kursh 1912 - 2006 Died in Fair Oaks, CA, on December 27, 2006, at the age of 94. Charlotte was the only child of the distinguished landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. and his wife Sarah Hall Sharples Olmsted. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. designed, among other projects, the National Mall in Washington DC and the California Park System. She was the granddaughter of the founder of landscape architecture in the United States, Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed Central Park in New York City in 1858. Charlotte was born in the house called Fairstead in Brookline, MA, headquarters for the Olmsted firm of landscape architecture and now a National Historical Site. The Olmsted firm of father and son, which also included at various times stepson, John Charles Olmsted, Calvert Vaux, Charles Eliot, and Henry Sargent Codman, was the first firm of landscape architects in the United States. The firm was responsible for more than 5000 projects, including Morningside, Riverside, and Prospect parks in New York, the Emerald Necklace of parks in Boston, and Roland Park in Baltimore, as well as many college campuses: College of California (predecessor of Cal) in Berkeley (1865), Cornell University (1867), Trinity College (1872), Yale University (1874), Stanford University (1886), Smith College (1891), Vassar College (1896), Brown University (1900), Williams College (1902), Harvard Business School (1925), and Duke University (1925). Other projects included Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, Rancho Palos Verdes in Southern California, and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. A graduate of Sweet Briar College of Virginia, Charlotte was married for 23 years to Robert Lee Gill, Jr. of Baltimore, MD, who predeceased her. She is survived by their four children: Dr. Sarah Gill of Berkeley, CA, Dr. Stephen Paschall Gill of Atherton, CA, Jane Gill Shaler of High Point, NC, and Mary Gill Jordan of Fair Oaks, CA. After her children were grown, Charlotte embarked on a new career, earning her Ph.D. in anthropology at Stanford and publishing many articles and books, including her study of gambling, "Heads I Win, Tails You Lose." Charlotte was happily married for 27 years to her second husband, artist and musician Maurice Kursh, who died in 1987. She was a devoted stepmother to Maurice's children by a previous marriage, Paula Kursh of Sebastopol, CA, and Stephen Kursh of New York City. Charlotte and Maurice made their home for many years in San Miguel de Allende, Gto., Mexico, where they are still remembered for their hospitality to family and friends and their generous support of the Festival de Musica de Camera and the Jazz Festival of San Miguel. Charlotte also contributed to the prize named for Maurice Kursh in the Irving Klein Memorial String Competition in San Francisco. In her later years, Charlotte made her home with her daughter, Mary Gill Jordan, in Fair Oaks, CA. She died following a bout with pneumonia. Charlotte is survived by her children; her stepchildren; her grandchildren, Frederick Jaya Gill, Elizabeth Gill, Richard Gill, Julie Olmsted Cross, Janet Olmsted Cross, Patti Jordan Ramos, Robert Jordan and Stephen G. Kursh; and her great-grandchildren, Cyrus Corman-Gill, Charlotte Olmsted Newville, Julia Ramos, Diana Ramos, Miguel Ramos, Emmy Ramos, Olivia Ramos and Gerrit Kursh. There will be a private family Memorial Service on March 2, 2006, on what would have been her 95th birthday. Her remains will be interred in the Olmsted family vault in Hartford, CT.