Wesley "Wes" Frederick Fator

Wesley Frederick Fator "Wes" November 1930-February 4, 2015, east bay architectural designer who frequented the Cafe Med daily during the 1950'-1980's, died peacefully at the age of 84 on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 in Santa Cruz from respiratory failure and complications of cardiac arrest and a stroke. He was born in San Francisco to Marguerite Trousdale Fator Leopold and Jeptha Wesley Fator. His mother's side of the family came to Dutch Flat, Ca during the gold rush and owned the Dutch Flat Hotel from the 1860's to the 1950's--making Wes a fifth generation Californian. His father's side of the family, on his maternal grandmother's side, Martha "Mattie" DeBril Fator, has a long history in flying going back before the 1920's. Wes grew up in the Noe Valley district of San Francisco and attended Polytechnic High School during the late 1940's, but due to a move to Richmond, he graduated from Richmond High in 1948. Shortly after graduation, Wes entered the U.S. Army and served in the Signal Corp in the Korean War. His love of architecture motivated him to the study of architecture and engineering at Contra Costa College in the 1950's when the college was in temporary quarters. He and Jack Bianchi formed a small partnership where they designed small business complexes and residences throughout the east bay where they both lived. Wes's designs reflect his lifelong study of Frank Lloyd Wright's building and philosophy of the relationship between nature and spaces. During the Vietnam War, Wes returned to school and attended San Francisco State where he expanded his ideas of space, which he called imaginary space. Later, these ideas became paramount in his designs. Wes loved to read books on all of the arts, histories and sciences in all of the cultures of the world and he passionately expressed this love with friends and acquaintances in conversation at the Med or The Albatross in Berkeley or at his home which he shared with his wife of more than 46 years in the home where he designed and built an addition or at The Hills in the Montclair District in Oakland . Later, his conversational group expanded to Aptos in Santa Cruz where he resided until his death. He also loved to listen to Baroque Music, especially that of Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart. He and his wife, Trudie, regularly attended concerts at the UCSC Music Center to listen to the performances of the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival to which they also donated. He and his wife briefly travelled to visit friends and family in New York, Rhode Island, then to Minnesota and South Dakota and to Arkansas where her family lived before it became a state. Wes loved nature, but he especially loved to live surrounded by the redwoods in Aptos at the last residence he lived at before his death. A special treat for him was a Sour Cream Apple Pie that his wife prepared to share with all of his guests. He is survived by his devoted wife, Trudie, who cared for him after his cardiac arrest, stroke and decrease in respiratory abilities for the last 3 years. He is predeceased by: Alyssa Trousdale Warr and Sandra O'Malley. Other survivors include: the families of Kelley Trousdale of Aptos, Barbara and Walter Khazoyan, his sister-in law of Orange County, Stanley Smith, Genevieve Anderson, Susan Schultz of Portland and Cottage Grove in Oregon, Patty DeYoung of Kentucky and Benson Robbins of Searcy, Arkansas. Family and friends are invited to either a celebration of life at The Claremont Hotel, located at: 41 Tunnel Road, Berkeley, Ca 94705 on Saturday, March 21st, 2015 from 2-5pm in the Sonoma Room, or on Friday, March 27th at the Universalist Unitarian Fellowship of Santa Cruz County, located at: 6401 Freedom Blvd., Aptos CA 95003, from 6-10pm. Please RSVP to either Barbara Khazoyan at 1148 E. Concord Avenue, Orange, CA. 92867, or to this email address; [email protected], Thank You. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to: Cabrillo College Stroke Center, Peralta Retirees Organization-Scholarships, San Francisco State University, Dignity Dominican Hospital Foundation. The family would like to thank the doctors and their staff who assisted Wes tirelessly.