Elaine Dallman

Elaine Gay Dallman, Ph.D., 83, has died. She passed away peacefully on April 4, 2010, at her Sonoma County home in Kenwood, Calif., of renal and pulmonary failure after a long illness.

An award-winning poet schooled under luminaries in San Francisco and Carbondale, Ill., Dallman remained active in literary small-press publishing and business endeavors until her death.

A fourth-generation Northern Californian, Dallman was born in Sacramento, where she attended high school before moving to San Francisco. She was enrolled for a year at Dominican College in San Rafael prior to her degree work at Stanford University — from which she graduated in 1948 with a double major in child psychology and education. In the 1960s, she resumed her studies to earn a master’s degree in creative writing at San Francisco State University. In the decade that followed, she was awarded a Ph.D. in English literature and creative writing from Southern Illinois University. Dallman has been the recipient of numerous grants and scholarships for writing, teaching and publishing, from organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts through the Nevada State Council of the Arts, American Association of University Women, Illinois Arts Council, and Villa Montalvo.

Active throughout her adult life in community service and volunteer work, Dallman was an accomplished teacher and leader, and was an inspired and staunch participant in the burgeoning women’s movement — well before it became known as such. Indeed, she was a vocal supporter of equal rights in general.

Dallman was a world traveler and discerning collector who surrounded herself with art, beauty and original design. Near the end of her eighth decade she leapt with unflagging fervor into her final and most ambitious project, commissioning and supervising the design and construction of her striking Sonoma County home overlooking the Valley of the Moon. The custom residence was the artistic vision of Berkeley architect Walter Olds (d. 2008), an early disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright’s who masterfully blended the natural beauty of the site’s landscape — including the ancient oak tree that became the home’s centerpiece — into an aesthetic monument to utilitarianism.

Dallman has commissioned a book to be written about the design and conception of the home. It is slated for publication later this year.

Near her bedside at death were her son Willard Dallman Ross of Wiesbaden, Germany; daughter Laurel Alyce Ross of Walnut Creek; and beloved grandchildren, Brian David Neesan of Boston, Mass., and Rebecca Justine Ross of Sacramento. Also in mourning with the immediate family is Heike Mayer of Wiesbaden.

Dallman was the daughter of prominent California businessman and yachtsman Vernon S. Dallman, Sr. of Tiburon and Etta H. Dallman of San Francisco. Brother Vern Dallman, Jr., an accomplished aerobatics pilot, sportsman, and businessman, also predeceased her. Dallman’s 16-year marriage to a prestigious East Bay surgeon ended in divorce in 1969.

Funeral services for family and friends were held Friday, April 9th, at 1:00 PM, at the Forever Fernwood memorial chapel next to the newly consecrated Gan Yarok green burial grounds, 301 Tennessee Valley Road, Mill Valley. The service was followed by a reception at the Kenwood home. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco (sfjcf.org) at 121 Steuart Street, San Francisco, CA 94105.