Eugene H. Perry February 20, 1931 - November 6, 2023 Post Falls, ID
Eugene H. (Gene) Perry, 92, passed away peacefully on November 6 in Post Falls, Idaho, after a brief illness. A longtime Marin County architect, Gene was born in Oakland, California on February 20, 1931 to Hallie and Robert Perry. He attended Oakland public schools and graduated from Cal Poly in 1956, with an architectural engineering degree. Gene and his first wife, Jacqueline Holt Perry (deceased), moved to Mill Valley in 1964, where they lived for many years, raising three children, Dale, Suzanne and Maureen. Gene was later married to Bonnie Wudtke (deceased). He married Ruth Vandenberg in 1998 and they lived for many years in Sausalito.
Gene enjoyed the outdoor life of Marin and Idaho (where he and Ruth lived for part of each year). Whether hiking on Mt. Tam or Idaho’s Mt. Clifty, or exploring the Marin headlands, or boating on the Bay, Gene loved sharing the outdoors with family and friends. He was a member of the Sausalito Yacht Club, the San Francisco World Affairs Council, and the San Francisco Ballet Guild.
Architecture was Gene’s passion. He worked at several architecture firms in San Francisco and later as a project manager for many years at U.C.S.F. While in his seventies, he and Ruth bought a 100-year-old school building in Bonners Ferry, Idaho and converted it into a bed and breakfast, which they operated for 14 years. Gene continued to design and build projects until the end.
Gene was predeceased by his older siblings, Bob and Dolores. He is survived by his wife Ruth, his children Dale Perry (Debora), Suzanne Killion (Paul), and Maureen Youngstrom (Scott), eight grandchildren (Shawn, Brandon, Alexa, Kelsi, Kimberly, Kendall, Jack, Erika), and thirteen great grandchildren (Anabelle, Andrew, Elin, Nico, Oliver, Caleb, Mickelina, Cici, Ada, Watson, Scout, Ezra, and Logan). He is also survived by the many beautiful buildings he designed around the Bay Area and elsewhere. He will be dearly missed.
Gene loved limericks, and he wrote a final one:
I show a long life on my family tree,
And if well spent, we shall see;
Life has passed by
Like the blink of an eye
Thanks all for what you gave me.
Should anyone wish to make contributions in Gene’s memory, please consider the Nature Conservancy (nature.org), or the Gary Sinise Foundation (garysinisefoundation.org).