Above: Judy Parzen visited Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “Gates” in Central Park in 2005.
Judith Parzen, whose efforts to bring leading artists and architects to La Jolla, California, in the 1970s are fondly remembered today, has died at 92. She was also widely known and beloved as the matriarch of the Parzen family of San Diego.
She died peacefully at her home in La Jolla this week after battling a short illness. She was surrounded by her sons, their wives and children.
When Judith, known as Judy, and her husband purchased their first home in La Jolla’s Bird Rock neighborhood in 1971, she set about renovating the iconic property on Avenida Cresta. The Spanish-colonial ranch house had been designed by the legendary California builder Cliff May, whose fame as a pioneer of southwest architecture was just beginning to grow.
She was keen on maintaining the property’s connection to May (today, the historic home is included in the California registry of culturally significant sites). She also did something that would raise more than one eyebrow in the staunchly conservative La Jolla community of that era: she painted a broad, sea blue stripe around the front of the home that featured the address in silhouette.
Judy, who later became a board member of the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art and a supporter of the town’s arts center, the Atheneum, would go on to host numerous artist receptions in the couple’s home. She was also a member of a group of likeminded La Jollans who organized conferences where top architects from across the country were invited to speak.
By the 1980s, she was working as a programmer for U.C.S.D. Extension, the university’s community and continuing education school where she became known for bringing top intellectuals and celebrities to campus for speaking engagements. Sir Roy Strong, then director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Dustin Hoffman, were among the speakers she presented.
Judith Deborah Parzen was born in 1933, in South Bend, Indiana, to Henrietta “Jean” (née Eder) and Maurice Bailie. Her father was co-owner of a successful building maintenance company. Her mother was a homemaker.
A precocious student, she graduated from Central High in South Bend at 16 before leaving to study art history, first at the University of Colorado Boulder, and then at Indiana University Bloomington, where she obtained her degree. She also attended a special summer program at Yale — then open to men only — where she continued her studies.
In 1955, she married Zane Parzen in South Bend and the couple moved to Chicago where he was studying to become a doctor. All four of her sons were born there and she worked as a docent at the Art Institute of Chicago while raising her children in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
In 1971, they moved to San Diego where Zane had been asked to lead a local doctors group. They divorced in 1980 following revelations about Zane’s malpractice. She never remarried.
Her oldest son Aaron died in a car accident in California at age 15. She is survived by her sons and their wives, Tad Parzen and Diane Sherman of San Diego, Micah Parzen and Marguerite Riles of San Diego, and Jeremy and Tracie Parzen of Houston; grandchildren Eli, Cole, and Amalia Parzen; Abner and Oscar Parzen; and Georgia and Lila Jane Parzen.
She was a lover of modern art, Broadway musicals, non-fiction, travel, cookery and fine dining. In myriad tributes shared in recent weeks, friends spoke of her humor, flair, and resilience as inspiration for their own lives and careers.
A celebration of life is being planned at a date to be determined.
Do Bianchi 