Van Maren King

1938 - 2025

Van Maren King
08/31/1938 - 01/06/2025
Van Maren King 1938- 2025
Born August 31, 1938, Van Maren King passed away suddenly after a brief illness on January 6, 2025. Van was the youngest of Elsie Marie Van Maren and Cmdr. Clinton Samuel King's four children. He loved his childhood memories, playing along Cherry Creek which ran through the Van Maren Ranch in Citrus Heights and summers spent with a favorite cousin at The River Farms in Knights Landing. He enjoyed life beyond California in Norfolk, Virginia, Casablanca, Morocco, Geneva, Switzerland, St. Louis, Missouri, Elsa, Illinois, and New York City. Highlights of this time also include photographic wilderness adventures with his sister Ardis and her husband, the photographer, Phillip Hyde.
Van's family stretches back more than four generations in the West to include the Van Marens, Kings, Lewellings, and Kieffers. Van spent innumerable hours researching and understanding the threads of his family who arrived in a covered wagon by way of the Oregon Trail and by ship around The Horn.
Van married Ingrid Fiksdahl in 1960 and graduated from the Architecture School at UC Berkeley in 1963. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley in 1972 (Cal's first interdisciplinary PhD). Between 1962 and 1968, Caitlin, Johanna, and Benjamin were born. The marriage ended in 1972.
Van married Laurel Ishikawa in 1977, Aurora Toshiko (1978) and Yukio Van Maren (1980) were born, and they raised their family in Esparto and Woodland, California.
Van was hired upon graduation in 1963 by Wurster Bernardi and Emmons to lead the design team for BART, the SF Bay Area's new rail system. In 1972, after completing his PhD, he worked on numerous community projects to fund and develop infill parks throughout Berkeley. Following this, he was invited by California's State Architect, Sim Van Der Ryn, to lead and execute the Capitol Area Plan in Sacramento. In 1978, seeking a change of pace, Van and Laurel created a storefront in the old train station in Esparto, California. As a community hub, they were ahead of their time, selling local produce from the Capay Valley, while also providing bedding plants, root stock fruit trees and livestock feed to local farmers. By 1982, Van returned to the public sector, joining UC Davis' facilities management team as a building inspector. Van retired in 2000.
Van is survived by his wife of 47 years, Laurel, and his five children and 15 grandchildren, Mary, David, Viggo, Ellen, Walter, Matias, Sarah, Kai, Max, Sam, Anna, Benjie, Manzanita, Uma and Rei.
Please consider a donation to the Bodega Bay Foundation in honor of Van Maren King to maintain his favorite beach park campground (site of annual King mussel feasts). https://www.sonomacountyparksfoundation.org/doran.html A gathering of friends and family will occur soon.