DePrima Terrace Dedication

Thursday, April 18, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
at the Gualala Arts Center

Please join us for the DePrima Terrace Dedication on Sunday April 18, 2010 from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. with the Dedication at 2:30 p.m.

The DePrima Terrace was given in loving memory of the late Sea Ranch resident, Charles Raymond DePrima, by his wife Margaret Thurmond DePrima, family and friends. Charles DePrima was a distinguished Professor of Mathematics at California Institute of Technology for 40 years, and was a life-long appreciator of art, drama, and music.

A series of haiku verses entitled "Requiem for a Mathematician" written by Margaret Thurmond DePrima, a published poet, author and journalist, will be read in memory of her husband.

At NYU, where Professor DePrima earned a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, he was a friend of Albert Einstein - yet Charles could talk with anyone about anything. "In fact, the thought that first comes to mind about Charles is his immense talent for friendship", wrote his Cal Tech colleague Professor Donald Hudson in his reminiscences of Charles. He went on to say, "Charles was always at the center of these gatherings [lunches at the Cal Tech Faculty Club, The Athenaeum]--with his broad range of interests covering not only his professional specialties, but including art, drama, music, current events, and speculations about life's deeper meanings."

In 1979, Charles and his late wife, Anne Marie DePrima, commissioned their Donald Jacobs designed home, which received The Sea Ranch Design Award. Together, they were connoisseurs of art, drama and music. Anne Marie passed away in 1984.

Charles and Margaret Thurmond DePrima met in 1985 at an art opening at Gualala Arts. Margaret had travelled from her home in the Pacific Palisades to visit her sister Edith Holmes and her husband, noted local sculptor Robert Holmes, at their Sea Ranch home. Edith and Robert Holmes introduced Margaret and Charles at that art opening. In 1987, Charles and Margaret were married at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Santa Rosa.

Margaret DePrima, a journalist with a background in international relations, worked at the Washington Daily News with White House Correspondent Helen Thomas during World War II. Margaret earned a Masters in English Literature. She wrote two books about romantic poems -- one analyzing George Meredith's The Egoist, and another dealing with Elena Adelaide Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. Later she studied at Oxford, where she wrote A Pilgrims Progress at Oxford (An Account of New Research by one of the world's foremost ecologists). Various of her poems have been published. Over the years, Margaret founded three non-profi t organizations.

Charles' and Margaret's shared love of the arts continued with their membership at Gualala Arts, where Margaret entered her photographs in several juried exhibitions. Charles and Margaret thoroughly enjoyed the lectures, dinners, dances, and exhibits at Gualala Arts. Margaret loved her Haiku Poetry Group led by Jane Reichhold. It was thrilling for Margaret that her brother-in-law Robert W. Holmes was instrumental in the siting and building of the current Gualala Arts Center, and that a number of his sculptures are part of the permanent exhibit.

When Charles died in 1991, Margaret asked that Memorial donations be made to the Charles R. DePrima Memorial Fund at Gualala Arts. Charles would be delighted to know that The DePrima Terrace under the redwoods near the Gualala River will provide the setting for stimulating and social events like the ones that he and Margaret loved so much.

The Gualala Arts Center, located at 46501 Old State Highway in Gualala, CA,
is open weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and weekends from noon to 4:00 p.m.
Please call (707) 884-1138 for more information, or email info@gualalaarts.org.

Serving the coastal communities of northern Sonoma & southern Mendocino Counties.