By Judy Swink
Advocate of good planning, historian and historic preservationist, and a founding member of Citizens Coordinate for Century 3 (C-3)
Loch and Clare Crane
Clare Crane was a dedicated advocate for the principles of long-view planning for thoughtful growth combined with conservation and preservation of San Diego’s natural attributes, making clear these are complementary goals. Clare’s interest in planning and good architectural design was stimulated at the age of 15 when, as a high school student in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she was invited to participate in the Taliesin Junior Fellowship at Frank Lloyd Wright’s home & studio. She met her future husband, architect Loch Crane, at Taliesin; he was an apprentice in Wright’s “architectural laboratory.”
As noted by Clare in her biographical submission for C-3’s 1999 Roger & Ellen Revelle Award:
My earliest interest in urban planning came from seeing the big model of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Broadacre City” at Taliesin, in the summers of 1940 & 1941. I was about 15 at the time, and the model was fascinating. It was three-dimensional and about 16 feet square [and] showed highways sunk down and separated from urban areas for convenience, speed and safety purposes; it had residential, commercial, industrial, recreational and agriculture areas, with little buildings, trees, crops, etc. It made a tremendous visual impression and, of course, caused me to realize that cities need not, like ‘Topsy’, just grow — but they can be planned so that various activities have logical and aesthetic relationships.
In 1943, Clare began classes at Wellesley College, but dropped out to marry Loch Crane in 1944. Loch served in the Army Air Corps, and after the war ended the couple lived in Japan while Loch assisted with recovery efforts. That was followed by a second sojourn in Japan during the Korean War to oversee building of airfields. In 1956, Loch attended the University of Southern California – School of Architecture, and Clare resumed her own college career, taking classes at Pasadena City College. She subsequently received a B.A. in History, with Honors, from then San Diego State College, and, in 1960, an M.A. in History from UCLA with assistance of a Woodrow Wilson Scholarship.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Clare taught History and English at San Diego State while it was becoming a university (SDSU), then taught U.S. History, California History and San Diego Urban History at several community colleges and in the UCSD Extension Program. In 1968, she earned a Ph.D. in History from SDSU.
During 1978-79, Clare acted as consultant and script writer for the KPBS-Radio series “Twelve Who Shaped San Diego.” While serving on the San Diego Historic Sites Board from 1968-1976, Clare was the first curator of the Villa Montezuma from 1972-74. Her interest and active support for the Villa Montezuma continued until her death in 2011.
Over the decades, Clare served on the boards of many local organizations including the YWCA, Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO), Citizens Coordinate for Century 3 (C-3), San Diego Independent Scholars, Dimensions, and, not the least of her interests, the Friends of Classics at SDSU, which was established to encourage continued education and appreciation of Greek and Roman classic literature and to raise funds for scholarships in the College of Classics and Humanities. Both Clare and Loch were active in support of YWCA programs, particularly Becky’s House I & II.
Education was of key importance to Clare; she established a scholarship fund at SDSU and provided generous support to the Cajon Valley Middle School AVID course, a social science and languages program designed to assist recently arrived immigrant and refugee students. Clare served as a member of the Advisory Committee of the SDSU College of Arts & Letters, and was recognized by SDSU with the prestigious “Monty Award” in 2006.
As founding members of Citizens Coordinate for Century 3, Loch and Clare took part in most of the important planning and urban development issues in San Diego across almost 4 decades. Clare served twice as president of C-3 and, from 1979-81, as co-chair of the Committee for Charter Protection for Parks / Balboa Park Defense Fund, a coalition which was unsuccessful in persuading the Navy to build the hospital outside of Balboa Park. During the 1980s, Clare served as Chair of the C-3 Balboa Park Committee while the new Balboa Park Master Plan was being developed.
In 2011, shortly before she died, Clare published a history of the first decade of Citizens Coordinate, “Citizens Coordinate and the Battle for City Planning in San Diego” (copies available through C-3), a decade which set the stage for continuing efforts to balance economic, design, and environmental issues as San Diego has grown.
Those of us who had the privilege of participating in Clare’s efforts to improve the quality of life for this region remember her as both a determined advocate for her causes and an ever-patient mentor to those who shared her passions. Working together or independently, Clare Crane and her husband Loch influenced for the better many aspects of the built, social, and natural environments of San Diego.