Watkin, Rebecca Wood, 1913-2010
Biographical Note
Rebecca Wood Watkin was born in 1913 in Portland, Oregon. She earned a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 1933, and a B. Arch. from the Architecture School of the University of Pennsylvania. She returned to the west coast, and worked in other architects' offices during the 1930s and 1940s. She earned her California Architectural license in 1944 and opened her own practice in 1951. She collaborated with architect Fred Coolidge from 1953 to 1970, and then practiced from her own office in Sausalito, California, from 1972 to 1989. She served on the Marin County Planning Commission from 1954 to 1958. She continued to design until her retirement in 1990.
Watkin married Joseph Esherick in 1938; they divorced in 1951. She married Harold Watkin in 1958; he died in 1981. She has three children. Her avocational activities include involvement in Democratic Party political campaigns on all levels of government and work with the Ecumenical Association for Housing in Marin County, California.
Watkin passed away on December 19, 2010, at the age of 97, in La Jolla, CA.