Martha Kaye

Martha Kaye

January 25, 1934-February 18, 2025

Martha Kaye, a longtime Del Mar resident whose passions took her from the outdoors to the halls of city government, died Feb. 18 of complications from Alzheimer's disease. She was 91.

In 1957, Marti and her husband, Peter, built a glass and cedar home on Ocean View Avenue designed by Lloyd Ruocco, one of California's great mid-century architects.

Diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2010, she spent her final years in the Carmel Valley home of her loving caregiver, Alice Rafferty. Marti died peacefully with her three sons and Alice at her bedside.

A native of Laguna Beach, Marti moved to Del Mar shortly after her marriage to Peter, her husband of 60 years.

As she settled into the business of raising her sons-Loren, Terry and Adam-Marti found time to pursue her passions.

An amateur sculptor, she studied modern art and collected paintings by Richard Allen Morris and Mac McClain at the now defunct La Jolla Museum School. Ever curious, she audited science classes at UC San Diego.

Her record collection ranged from Oscar Peterson to Itzhak Perlman to works of the experimental composer and instrument-maker Harry Partch, whom she also befriended.

In the kitchen, her farmers-market-to-table cooking was itself a work of art.

In the mid-1980s, Marti was a driving force behind the founding of the Del Mar Farmers Market, the second-oldest farmers market in San Diego County. As the first president of its board of directors, she helped secure the market's status as a nonprofit corporation that continues to plow a share of profits right back into the community.

In 1989, inspired by a former prime minister of New Zealand, Marti successfully lobbied the Del Mar City Council to establish the city as a nuclear-free zone, where the possession, testing, storage or repair of nuclear weapons and their components is off limits. At the time, California was home to 24 nuclear-free cities.

"A lot of people initially said, 'Why waste your time trying to prevent nuclear war?'" she told the Los Angeles Times. "Because we really have no say whatsoever in big things like the F-16, the Stealth bomber and the defense budget. So when something like this comes off locally, everyone can stand up and raspberry the big government. Because that's what it is-a raspberry."

Also in 1989, Marti was appointed to the City of Del Mar's Design Review Board, where she served a single term.

She was one of the fundamental forces that led to the creation of Del Mar Community Connections, a social services group for seniors.

Other volunteer work, as a docent, brought Marti to Torrey Pines State Reserve and the San Diego Natural History Museum.

With longtime friend Ann Silber, she helped establish a low-cost dental clinic at St. Leo Mission Church in Solana Beach.

As a member of the San Diego County chapter of the Sierra Club, she enjoyed weekly hikes in the local mountains and desert. She made several backpacking trips to the Sierra with a women's group. She climbed Mt. Whitney, California's tallest mountain. Other travels took her and Peter to Mexico, Central and South America, Greece, New Zealand, Sweden, Russia, Europe and Canada.

Martha Louise Wood was born January 25, 1934, in Long Beach.

She was raised in Laguna Beach and graduated from Laguna Beach High School before attending Denison University and University of Southern California.

She and her family lived briefly in Banning, where her father, Dr. Leonard Wood, rode horseback to attend to patients on a nearby Indian reservation.

Marti was preceded in death by her husband, Peter Kaye; parents, Leonard Wood and Anna Bray; brother Bradford Voight of Grafton, Vermont, and sister Joan Kay of Monte Nido. She is survived by a brother, Leonard Wood, of Dana Point.

Other survivors include her three sons: Loren (Cassie Gilson) of Sacramento, Terry (Louise Kirst) of Torrance, and Adam (Lisa Tufo Waltman) of Encinitas. She has five grandchildren-Nicole, Rhianna, Zoe, Thomas and Ellery-and one great-grandson, Evan.

Donations can be made to the UCSD Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Research Center or the Alzheimer's Association San Diego/Imperial Chapter.

A celebration of life is pending.