In recent months the Committee of 100 has lost several long-time leaders and volunteers.
Darlene Gould Davies (1939-2022)
Darlene was a lifelong Balboa Park volunteer and activist. She served on the C100 board from 2007 to 2011 and in 2020 was recognized with the Gertrude Gilbert Award for her service to Balboa Park, particularly for her service on the city's Balboa Park Committee for nine years in the early 2000s.
She wrote articles for the Journal of San Diego History on the Old Globe, S.D. Junior Theatre and the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition. She made many contributions to Ranch and Coast magazine during the past 25 years.
Her first marriage was to Thomas Gould and her second to Lowell Davies, who served on the Old Globe board for 43 years until his death in 1983, including many years as president. Darlene served on the Old Globe board and its Globe Guilders auxiliary.
Serving as the Old Globe's historian, she curated memorabilia for the "First Folio" exhibition in 2016 at the San Diego Central Library and for "Muses of the Old Globe" at the Women's Museum of California. The museum inducted her into its San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame in 2017.
Darlene also served on the San Diego Advisory Board on Women; San Diego County's Commission on the Status of Women; the Horton Plaza Theatre Foundation; and the city's Commission for Arts & Culture.
Tom Jackson (1940-2022)
Tom joined the C100 board in 2007 and served as board secretary and representative to the Electric Building Tenants Association that oversees the lease of the Casa de Balboa where C100's offices are located.
Tom grew up in Clovis in California's Central Valley. He majored in humanities at Fresno State University, enlisted in the army and completed his business administration degree at San Diego State University.
He pursued a career promoting California wines to restaurants and through Vin de Cal distributors. He next joined the United Way of San Diego County focusing on major donor gift programs.
Tom volunteered with the San Diego History Center on its redesign of the Junipero Serra Museum, the Presidio Little League board and Boy Scout troops as cubmaster and scout master. Hiking and camping with eight other fathers (calling themselves los viejos locos), Tom was known for producing gourmet meals over a campfire. He was also an accomplished musician whose folk music trio entertained at coffee houses in the 1960s.
First married for several years to Jean Simpson of San Francisco, in 1972 Tom married Lucy Healy. They had two sons, Brian and Brent.
Adopted shortly after birth by William and Kathryn Kliewer, Jackson reunited later in life with his birth mother, Helga Anderson Eichel of Parker, S.D., and met three half-brothers.
Dick Lareau (1927-2022)
Richard J. "Dick" Lareau was a noted mid-century modern architect in San Diego. His family moved to Chula Vista in his youth; at Sweetwater High School he played on the tennis team and enjoyed the game throughout his life.
He received bachelor’s and master’s architectural degrees from UC Berkeley and worked on the El Cortez Hotel glass elevator, said to be the world’s first.
In 1957 he opened his own firm specializing in institutional architecture including schools, college campus and law school buildings and libraries. Local landmarks with his signature circular design included the Mission Bay Park visitors center, Community Congregational Church in Pacific Beach, and a Nairobi, Kenya, campus adaptation of native tribal designs.
Lareau joined C100 in 1998 and worked on C100 arcade reconstructions along El Prado. He was active in the Point Loma Association, a long-time board member of the San Diego Air & Space Museum and a cofounder of the Junto Group, modeled on Benjamin Franklin’s Junto club of civic leaders. He was a founding director of Peninsula Bank and joined many civic boards and commissions.
In addition to tennis, Dick enjoyed sailing, sport fishing, golfing and gardening, wowing his Point Loma Community Garden friends with growing a record-size, 2.5-pound tomato.
He is survived by his wife Victory, who will serve on the C100 board.
Culver "Cub" Parker (1940-2022)
Cub joined C100 in 2009 and worked on restoring many artifacts for public display. He also helped clean up the fountains in the Alcazar Garden.
He also served on the boards of the American Lung Association of San Diego & Imperial Counties; UCSD Connect, the early-stage business accelerator; and San Diego Tech Coast Angels investment group.
He consulted with the Los Alamos National Laboratory on early-stage technology commercialization, where he also founded a startup life science company. Professionally, he spent 25 years in commercial and technology banking.
Cub was born in San Jose, earned a business degree at Cal Poly Pomona and law degree at California Western School of Law.