Friends, colleagues stunned by death of Glen Ellen architect

Everything Mark Perry did, he did well. Writing, poetry, painting, music, sports, and of course, architecture, his livelihood. He was a good son, husband and father.

One close friend described Perry, 38, as a “renaissance man,” full of creativity, vigor, intelligence and ambition.

Perry had his whole life ahead of him - the architecture firm he started in 2008, which specialized in green sustainable design, defied the recession; his infant daughter turns one year this week; and a few months ago he and his young family moved into a home he designed and had built in Glen Ellen, where he grew up.

News of his death in a car crash last week has sent shock waves among his family, friends and colleagues.

“We just heard about it today. It shocked us all,” said Michael Ross, founding principal of Ross Drulis Cusenbery Architecture, the Sonoma-based firm where Perry worked for about eight years before striking out on his own. “It’s a great loss to the profession, to Sonoma Valley, his family and his loved ones.”

Perry died during the crash on Adobe Road near Petaluma, which occurred sometime Friday night or early Saturday morning, according to the Sonoma County coroner’s office. Speed is believed to be a factor in the accident and the coroner plans to conduct an autopsy to determine what led to the man’s death.

Perry’s father, Tom Perry, 72, said his son was likely driving home from a concert at the Mystic Theatre in Petaluma either Thursday night or early Friday morning. He said the younger Perry must have “nodded off” at the wheel.

The elder Perry, a retired Fremont police officer, said his son’s death is a devastating blow to the family. From his home in Glen Ellen, Perry’s father recalled an ideal son whose talents were boundless.

“I had the greatest relationship with Mark,” Perry said. “I never yelled at him and he never yelled at me, not once. Even when he was in high school. ... He was everything you could ever want in a kid.”

The son of Tom and Ellen Perry, Mark Perry attended Dunbar Elementary School in Glen Ellen and Alta Mira Junior High in Sonoma. He graduated from Sonoma Valley High School in 1994.

His father said Mark Perry was an excellent athlete who played All-League baseball his junior and senior years in high school. He was a pitcher who could also nail the ball, he said.

“He hit over .400 for two years. The college scouts were watching him,” he said.

Tom Perry said his son wanted to both play baseball at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and study architecture. But after a faculty member told him that would only be possible if he could be in two places at once, Mark Perry decided to focus on architecture, his father said.

After he graduated from the five-year program, he briefly worked at a firm in San Luis Obispo before moving back to Sonoma Valley, where he landed a job with Ross Drulis Cusenbery. When he was a junior in high school, Mark Perry job-shadowed at the Sonoma firm.

“He was a self-directed person,” said Ross. “He really knew what he wanted to do.”

Ross said that Mark Perry was the kind of person who allowed time for himself, whether it was traveling or his artistic pursuits, but never forsook his responsibilities or his career.

“He would always create space for himself to do other creative endeavors and then apply himself 110 percent to his work,” Ross said.

Ross said Perry quickly got his architecture license, faster than most aspiring architects he’s encountered. He soon assumed management positions on several big jobs. He was project architect for the renovation and seismic retrofit at Sonoma Community Center. He was also project architect for the Sonoma Police Station expansion, the expansion of the Los Gatos police department building and emergency operations center.

Ross said he knew early on that Perry would start his own firm.

“It was inevitable,” he said. “You know that he was fully capable of attracting clients and he wanted to strike out on his own.”

Ross said Perry was drawn toward green building and sustainable design strategies.

“That aspect of the profession really resonated with Mark,” Ross said. “He had a broader vision for what architecture can be - that buildings can become better citizens of the world through conservation of natural resources, energy efficiency and creating healthful environments for people who use the building.”

A longtime friend and colleague, A.J. DeMartini, called Mark Perry “brilliant and creative, a real renaissance man” who played several instruments, wrote and played his own music, painted and wrote poetry.

DeMartini, a soils engineer for PJC & Associates, said Perry relished his new role as a father.

“The last time we hung out, we were talking about being dads. He was really taking on that role of being a dad,” he said.

DeMartini said everyone who knew or worked with Perry is heartbroken. The news spread Monday, the first day of work since the accident.

“At my Sonoma office today it was just tough, really tough,” DeMartini said. “Everyone just kind of broke down at some point. We’ve all lost a great person.”

The family is planning to start a scholarship fund in Perry’s name.