Obituaries

George Stickle Oram, Berkeley, California, died on Saturday October 3rd. He was just three weeks shy of his 80th birthday.

My dad was a big man with a big heart. It was probably the muscle he exercised the most often. Those who knew him well could recount many stories in which he took a chance on a person or a place and threw his entire trust into that endeavor because his heart told him to do it. When describing him to friends, I say he’s like Forrest Gump. He lived a long life and was around for a number of pretty remarkable things. He is going to be severely missed by his family, friends, and the large community that grew around him. 

Although my dad lived the last 30 years of his life in Berkeley, he left a lot of his heart in New Jersey where he grew up, met his first wife, and had his first two children Wendy and Thomas. As a member of the family who was raised in California, I have only eaten corn that “must have been from New Jersey” because it tasted so good. 

My dad was proud of everything he did - from growing up on his dad’s dairy farm, to graduating from the Peddie School, Phillips Exeter, and Princeton - conversations with him easily turned to stories of drinking the cream off the top of fresh milk and getting into trouble with his classmates. When our family took long drives across California we would find ourselves pulled over on the side of the highway so my dad could say hello to the cows. We also once found ourselves outside of my dad’s dorm at Princeton where he showed up a bush that still hadn’t grown back because of his tom-foolery. My dad loved connecting with all kinds of people and learning their stories - what made them tick. To this day, he read the Princeton Alumni Weekly and was so excited when he made a facebook and could reconnect with all kinds of folks from his past. 

In the spring of my dad’s senior year, IBM had a hiring dinner to which he was invited. At this dinner, according to him, everyone was sitting around the table terribly nervous so my dad thought - I’ll go ahead and start the conversation. He was the only one in that group to be hired. He worked as a salesman at IBM for many years, taking a two year hiatus when he was drafted into the military. After this he headed computer systems for Johns Masville where he worked with a computer that took up entire floors of New York high rises. 

His next job took his family to Chevy Chase, Maryland. Princeton had taught my dad a huge amount of civic duty - so he took a job as the Administrative Director for the Home Loan Bank Board during the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations. Once, when I was standing outside of the White House, I called my dad and he directed me to a building two blocks away. Turns out, he had worked with an architect to design and build the whole thing! He was so proud. 

While living in Chevy Chase my dad spent a lot of his time sailing a classic bugeye, the two masted sailboat originally used to dredge for oysters on the Chesapeake. He cooked crab cakes for our family years later, recounting making crab cakes on board for friends. He also played golf and coached my half siblings, Wendy and Tom, in hockey. 

In the early 1980s, my dad followed his heart yet again and moved Wendy and Tom with him to California. As a young boy he had spent a summer in Carmel while George Sr. was stationed in the Pacific during WW11. They moved into what is still our family’s Berkeley home in 1984. He became a real estate agent, and founded Elmwood Realty in 1986, and met my mom Mary. They met and were married in 8 months after my dad refused to sell her a house and proposed. He was a man who knew what he wanted. After getting married in 1986, my mom joined my dad at ERI and they ran it as a family business together for over 20 years. Through real estate they became very active in Berkeley politics, and the Berkeley Property Owners’ Association and our living room became a place familiar to Monday night action committee meetings. Typically accompanied by a bowl of chilli or some kind of sweet - if my dad could convince my mom to make it. 

In 1998 the managers of the Julia Morgan Center for The Arts came to my dad looking to sell the theater. They had three tenants -The Berkeley Ballet Theater, for which my sister and I danced, a yoga studio and a preschool. When he was asked by the owners for help in selling it, he told him they didn’t need to sell it. What they needed was a new manager, and he volunteered. 

In the two years he took the theater under his wing he expanded the programs developing Theater Rats, a children’s theater camp, new uses for the theater and many self-produced concerts. He found great joy in connecting with the Bay Area Arts community through booking the theater, arranging publicity, establishing a children’s theater camp, and hosting many performances. 

In the last years of his life, my dad slowed down a lot. But he still had so much love to give. He connected with friends who would come to visit him at the house and found restaurants around Berkeley where he became a regular for lunch. He has always loved talking to strangers, and in the last few years I think he probably met everyone in Berkeley. 

About two years ago, I was sitting across from my Dad at Tuk Tuk Thai on Shattuck avenue when a woman walked in wheeling a baby in a stroller. My dad, who always had to sit at a restaurant facing the door, immediately made eye contact with the woman, and she came right over to introduce him to the baby. I told her at the time that she had made his day. 

My dad gave so much love to the world, and I hope he passed peacefully knowing that it was all coming back to him as well. From his family, from his close friends, and from women who wheeled their babies over to say hello. 

I miss you so much, dad. 

George is survived by his wife, Mary Elsner Oram, of Berkeley, his brother, Peter Dewes Oram of New York City, the children of his marriage to Joan Shippee Oram (deceased)--daughter Wendy and her four children of Maui, Hawaii, son Thomas King Oram of Oakland, and the children of his marriage to Mary--daughter Elizabeth Grace Oram of Oakland, daughter Georgina Stuart Oram of Berkeley. 

There will be a memorial service Friday, November 13, 2015 at 1:30 pm at the Julia Morgan Theater at 2640 College Ave, Berkeley, CA. All are invited to join. If you have memories of George you would like to share please send them to gsoramjr@gmail.com