Martha Jane HUNTINGTON
HUNTINGTON, ARNOLD
Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 7/20/2011 at 19:55:40
Obituary - Martha Jane Huntington
December 4, 1960 ~ July 15, 2011Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
Sunday, July 17, 2011CLEAR LAKE IA -- Martha HUNTINGTON, 50, of 101 South 9th St, Clear Lake, died Friday, July 15, 2011 at the Muse-Norris Hospice Inpatient Unit, Mason City, IA. A memorial service will be held 10:30 a.m. Tuesday July 19, 2011 at the United Methodist Church, 508 2nd Ave North, Clear Lake, with the Rev. Diana HOOVER officiating.
Visitation will be from 4-7 p.m. Monday at the Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, Clear Lake, and then one hour before the service at the church. Inurnment will be held at a later time and place.
Memorials may be made to Wright on the Park, Inc., The Clear Lake Arts Center, the Clear Lake United Methodist Church, the Clear Lake Schools Foundation or Hospice of North Iowa.
Martha Jane HUNTINGTON was born December 4, 1960 in Grundy Center Iowa to Robert W. and Mary Jane (ARNOLD) HUNTINGTON. She graduated from Clear Lake High School in 1979 and Iowa State University in 1983. She earned a Masters of Architecture degree from Iowa State University in 1992.
Martha worked in healthcare marketing before returning to school to pursue a career in architecture. She worked with a firm in Dubuque before returning to north Iowa to work with Bergland + Cram. While there, she worked as a project manager and became a vice president with the firm in 2005. She worked on several projects in north Iowa, most notably the restoration/rehabilitation of the Historic Park Inn Hotel/City National Bank in Mason City, originally designed by Frank Lloyd WRIGHT.
She was a member of the United Methodist Church in Clear Lake, served on the boards of the Clear Lake Arts Center, Wright on the Park, Inc., and the Clear Lake Schools Foundation. She also served on the State Nominations Review Committee, which oversees buildings being named to the National Register of Historic Places.
Martha is survived by her father, Robert HUNTINGTON, Clear Lake; a brother, Brad HUNTINGTON and his wife Loree, Thompson, Iowa; two nieces, Erin HUNTINGTON and Ashley HUNTINGTON, Thompson and a nephew, Blake HUNTINGTON, Thompson.
She was preceded in death by her grandparents, her mother and an aunt.
Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, 101 North 4th St, Clear Lake, IA 50428 (641-357-2193) www.colonialchapels.com
~ ~ ~ ~
Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, July 16, 2011
by John SKIPPERMASON CITY — Martha HUNTINGTON, project architect for the restoration of the Historic Park Inn Hotel, died Friday [July 15, 2011] of cancer, within weeks of the hotel's scheduled opening.
HUNTINGTON, 50, of Clear Lake died at the Muse-Norris Hospice Inpatient Unit.
"I will never walk into that building without feeling her spirit,” said Ann MacGREGOR, executive director of Wright on the Park Inc., the citizens group that owns the Frank Loyd WRIGHT-designed building.
"I loved her like a daughter," said MacGREGOR. "I knew her long before the hotel project. I always admired her professionalism and her warm personality.
"I am so grateful she was lucid and able to understand when we told her we got our certificate of occupancy."
MacGREGOR said HUNTINGTON was dedicated to the hotel project even as her health began to fail.
"What I will remember about her is her warmth and her great sense of humor. Her wit was fabulous," she said.
Jean MARINOS, president of Wright on the Park, said, "Martha left a legacy. Her touch is all over that building. When we celebrate the opening, she won't be there in the physical sense but she’ll be there."
MARINOS said two qualities she will remember about HUNTINGTON are her smile and her laughter, which she displayed frequently.
"And she had a gift for seeing things from a different perspective, not only as an architect but in relationships. She was a special person and a good friend," she said.
HUNTINGTON was also very involved in the arts in Clear Lake. She was instrumental in the development of the Clear Lake Arts Center.
"She was always full of ideas and always wanting to go one step further than anyone else," said Jim LARSON, Clear Lake.
LARSON worked with HUNTINGTON on Arts Center projects.
"She was fanatical about the business she went into, which was architecture."
HUNTINGTON was hired by Bergland & Cram Architects in Mason City 16 years ago.
"She worked at a firm in Dubuque and wanted to get closer to home and we were looking for somebody and it worked out great," said Randy CRAM.
"She was wonderful. She had a real passion for preservation of historic structures. She loved modern architecture, too. The modern, art deco style, international style, she just loved that era of architecture from the 1930s through the 1950s.
"She always brought a smile to everything," CRAM said. "She was always very positive and upbeat. She was quite a lady."
HUNTINGTON was a 1979 graduate of Clear Lake High School, 1983 graduate of Iowa State University and received her master's degree in architecture from Iowa State in 1992.
She was involved in many community activities and was a former president of the Clear Lake Arts Council.
Service arrangements are with Ward-VanSlyke Colonial Chapel, Clear Lake.
Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, July of 2011
Cerro Gordo Obituaries maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen