Obit written by his wife and daughters:
Marvin Hamilton Read
Son, Husband, Father, Grandfather - A Play in Many Acts
Cast in Order of Appearance
Father: Sala Hamilton Read
Mother: Nettie Pearl Hutchinson
Wife: Margaret Faye Fairfield
Daughters: Margaret Regina Read, and Merry Elizabeth (Read) Wadsworth
Son-in-Law: Joel Gibson Wadsworth
Grandchildren: Thomas-Joseph Read Cater, Elizabeth Ann Cater, Mathew Raymond Wadsworth, Natalie Renee Streeter, William Charles Wadsworth, Ryan Aguilar and Karyn Margaret Frederick
ACT ONE January 8, 1936 - birth in South Gate, California. 1953 - Bell Gardens High School, Teddy in Senior play "Arsenic and Old Lace." Salutatorian. 1957 - Whittier College, Magna Cum Laude.
ACT TWO 1958 - Marriage, Portland, Oregon. One year teaching music in Montebello 1958-1959.
ACT THREE 1960-1997 - Music Educator in Oceanside Unified School District. 1966 - Masters in Music (performance) SDSU. 1982-1997 - Drama Instructor and Truax Theatre manager El Camino High School.
ACT FOUR Patron of the Arts throughout North San Diego County. Musician, Director, Sound designer, actor, drama adjudicator. Avid historian, and film buff. Collector of elephant figurines and dabbler in genealogy.
FINAL ACT February 27, 2009, death in Oceanside, California
Curtain Falls Fade to Black
Obituary from North County Times
Remembering Marvin Read
OCEANSIDE ---- Marvin Read could play the piano or the trombone. He also could play Franklin Roosevelt or a disturbed man who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt.
When it came to performing arts, Read's talents were exceeded only by his versatility.
He was a teacher, a director, a musician, a sound designer, a conductor, a technician and an actor. For nearly 50 years he was an integral part of North County theater, doing just about everything but selling popcorn during the shows.
"His passion for theater was infectious and his generosity unmatched," Kristianne Kurner, executive artistic director of the New Village Arts Theatre, wrote in an e-mail. "He will be missed.''
Read died Feb. 27 from a heart attack in his Oceanside home. He was 73. His wife, Margaret, said he was taking medicine to correct an irregular heartbeat.
Despite retiring in 1997 following a 37-year career as a performing arts teacher in the Oceanside Unified School District, he remained active in the local theatre scene.
Read's appetite for performing arts clearly was no act. He lent physical and financial support to the cause, and those who worked with him marvel at the dedication he displayed.
"It was very important to him that the arts survived," his wife said. "That meant all arts, music, theater, film, everything."
Since 2005, Read had been a board member of New Village Arts, helping to move into its new Carlsbad location and achieve significant growth. He even sponsored actors from time to time, most recently for NVA's production of Hamlet.
"He was a walking, living reference library for all of us in theater," said Eliane Weidauer, the drama instructor at the Army-Navy Academy in Carlsbad. "I always told him he forgot more about performing arts than I will ever know."
Read and his wife moved to Oceanside in 1960 after he accepted the teaching assignment. He originally was stationed at the district office and would teach music at as many as four different schools per day.
"His car was his office," his wife said.
He started out teaching the violin and other string instruments, and eventually expanded to other instruments. His wife said he was so serious about his trade that when his classroom was unavailable one day at South Oceanside he conducted a trombone lesson in an electrician's closet.
"Good teachers adapt," Margaret Read said.
Read later became the drama instructor at El Camino High and oversaw construction of the school's Truax Theatre in 1982. He managed the theater for 15 years and implemented a program in which the school worked together with Oceanside High students, who were under the instruction of Weidauer at the time.
Even after retiring, he continued to assist drama students and programs. He recently went to the Army-Navy Academy to teach students technical aspects on the new large stage.
"He was very (generous with) his talents," said Weidauer, who has known Read since the mid-1970s when they worked together on a production at the old North County Playhouse. "He was very firm in his beliefs, but he would help anyone. He wanted to foster quality productions."
While acting wasn't his forte, he loved playing roles occasionally.
His wife said his favorite role was that of Mortimer Brewster's unhinged brother in "Arsenic and Old Lace," the bugle-blowing, hard-charging Teddy who thought he was Teddy Roosevelt. It was a character he had portrayed as far back as high school.
"He could put on quite an act if he wished," his wife said. "He could look you in the eye and tell you the sky is blue when it was in fact cloudy. And he'd make you believe him."
Read worked at many theaters, including MiraCosta College, Carlsbad Playreaders, Patio Playhouse, Long Beach Playhouse, The Theatre in Old Town, Pacific Coast Players, Actors Alliance and the San Diego Shakespeare Society. For twenty years he was a board member of the North Coast Repertory Theatre.
"He's going to be missed by a lot more than his family," his wife said.
While at Whittier College he met Margaret. They were set up by her roommate and later acted together in a campus production of "Inherit the Wind." They were married in 1958.
He was a history buff and loved to read. He became fascinated by genealogy and recently discovered a relative from the Mayflower, his wife said.
Read also had a fondness for elephants. He would spend time at their exhibits at the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park, and collected little elephant figurines. His wife said he has more than 100 elephant replicas, no two the same.
Marvin Hamilton Read
Son, Husband, Father, Grandfather - A Play in Many Acts
Cast in Order of Appearance
Father: Sala Hamilton Read
Mother: Nettie Pearl Hutchinson
Wife: Margaret Faye Fairfield
Daughters: Margaret Regina Read, and Merry Elizabeth (Read) Wadsworth
Son-in-Law: Joel Gibson Wadsworth
Grandchildren: Thomas-Joseph Read Cater, Elizabeth Ann Cater, Mathew Raymond Wadsworth, Natalie Renee Streeter, William Charles Wadsworth, Ryan Aguilar and Karyn Margaret Frederick
ACT ONE January 8, 1936 - birth in South Gate, California. 1953 - Bell Gardens High School, Teddy in Senior play "Arsenic and Old Lace." Salutatorian. 1957 - Whittier College, Magna Cum Laude.
ACT TWO 1958 - Marriage, Portland, Oregon. One year teaching music in Montebello 1958-1959.
ACT THREE 1960-1997 - Music Educator in Oceanside Unified School District. 1966 - Masters in Music (performance) SDSU. 1982-1997 - Drama Instructor and Truax Theatre manager El Camino High School.
ACT FOUR Patron of the Arts throughout North San Diego County. Musician, Director, Sound designer, actor, drama adjudicator. Avid historian, and film buff. Collector of elephant figurines and dabbler in genealogy.
FINAL ACT February 27, 2009, death in Oceanside, California
Curtain Falls Fade to Black
Obituary from North County Times
Remembering Marvin Read
OCEANSIDE ---- Marvin Read could play the piano or the trombone. He also could play Franklin Roosevelt or a disturbed man who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt.
When it came to performing arts, Read's talents were exceeded only by his versatility.
He was a teacher, a director, a musician, a sound designer, a conductor, a technician and an actor. For nearly 50 years he was an integral part of North County theater, doing just about everything but selling popcorn during the shows.
"His passion for theater was infectious and his generosity unmatched," Kristianne Kurner, executive artistic director of the New Village Arts Theatre, wrote in an e-mail. "He will be missed.''
Read died Feb. 27 from a heart attack in his Oceanside home. He was 73. His wife, Margaret, said he was taking medicine to correct an irregular heartbeat.
Despite retiring in 1997 following a 37-year career as a performing arts teacher in the Oceanside Unified School District, he remained active in the local theatre scene.
Read's appetite for performing arts clearly was no act. He lent physical and financial support to the cause, and those who worked with him marvel at the dedication he displayed.
"It was very important to him that the arts survived," his wife said. "That meant all arts, music, theater, film, everything."
Since 2005, Read had been a board member of New Village Arts, helping to move into its new Carlsbad location and achieve significant growth. He even sponsored actors from time to time, most recently for NVA's production of Hamlet.
"He was a walking, living reference library for all of us in theater," said Eliane Weidauer, the drama instructor at the Army-Navy Academy in Carlsbad. "I always told him he forgot more about performing arts than I will ever know."
Read and his wife moved to Oceanside in 1960 after he accepted the teaching assignment. He originally was stationed at the district office and would teach music at as many as four different schools per day.
"His car was his office," his wife said.
He started out teaching the violin and other string instruments, and eventually expanded to other instruments. His wife said he was so serious about his trade that when his classroom was unavailable one day at South Oceanside he conducted a trombone lesson in an electrician's closet.
"Good teachers adapt," Margaret Read said.
Read later became the drama instructor at El Camino High and oversaw construction of the school's Truax Theatre in 1982. He managed the theater for 15 years and implemented a program in which the school worked together with Oceanside High students, who were under the instruction of Weidauer at the time.
Even after retiring, he continued to assist drama students and programs. He recently went to the Army-Navy Academy to teach students technical aspects on the new large stage.
"He was very (generous with) his talents," said Weidauer, who has known Read since the mid-1970s when they worked together on a production at the old North County Playhouse. "He was very firm in his beliefs, but he would help anyone. He wanted to foster quality productions."
While acting wasn't his forte, he loved playing roles occasionally.
His wife said his favorite role was that of Mortimer Brewster's unhinged brother in "Arsenic and Old Lace," the bugle-blowing, hard-charging Teddy who thought he was Teddy Roosevelt. It was a character he had portrayed as far back as high school.
"He could put on quite an act if he wished," his wife said. "He could look you in the eye and tell you the sky is blue when it was in fact cloudy. And he'd make you believe him."
Read worked at many theaters, including MiraCosta College, Carlsbad Playreaders, Patio Playhouse, Long Beach Playhouse, The Theatre in Old Town, Pacific Coast Players, Actors Alliance and the San Diego Shakespeare Society. For twenty years he was a board member of the North Coast Repertory Theatre.
"He's going to be missed by a lot more than his family," his wife said.
While at Whittier College he met Margaret. They were set up by her roommate and later acted together in a campus production of "Inherit the Wind." They were married in 1958.
He was a history buff and loved to read. He became fascinated by genealogy and recently discovered a relative from the Mayflower, his wife said.
Read also had a fondness for elephants. He would spend time at their exhibits at the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park, and collected little elephant figurines. His wife said he has more than 100 elephant replicas, no two the same.
Obit written by his wife and daughters:
Marvin Hamilton Read
Son, Husband, Father, Grandfather - A Play in Many Acts
Cast in Order of Appearance
Father: Sala Hamilton Read
Mother: Nettie Pearl Hutchinson
Wife: Margaret Faye Fairfield
Daughters: Margaret Regina Read, and Merry Elizabeth (Read) Wadsworth
Son-in-Law: Joel Gibson Wadsworth
Grandchildren: Thomas-Joseph Read Cater, Elizabeth Ann Cater, Mathew Raymond Wadsworth, Natalie Renee Streeter, William Charles Wadsworth, Ryan Aguilar and Karyn Margaret Frederick
ACT ONE January 8, 1936 - birth in South Gate, California. 1953 - Bell Gardens High School, Teddy in Senior play "Arsenic and Old Lace." Salutatorian. 1957 - Whittier College, Magna Cum Laude.
ACT TWO 1958 - Marriage, Portland, Oregon. One year teaching music in Montebello 1958-1959.
ACT THREE 1960-1997 - Music Educator in Oceanside Unified School District. 1966 - Masters in Music (performance) SDSU. 1982-1997 - Drama Instructor and Truax Theatre manager El Camino High School.
ACT FOUR Patron of the Arts throughout North San Diego County. Musician, Director, Sound designer, actor, drama adjudicator. Avid historian, and film buff. Collector of elephant figurines and dabbler in genealogy.
FINAL ACT February 27, 2009, death in Oceanside, California
Curtain Falls Fade to Black
Obituary from North County Times
Remembering Marvin Read
OCEANSIDE ---- Marvin Read could play the piano or the trombone. He also could play Franklin Roosevelt or a disturbed man who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt.
When it came to performing arts, Read's talents were exceeded only by his versatility.
He was a teacher, a director, a musician, a sound designer, a conductor, a technician and an actor. For nearly 50 years he was an integral part of North County theater, doing just about everything but selling popcorn during the shows.
"His passion for theater was infectious and his generosity unmatched," Kristianne Kurner, executive artistic director of the New Village Arts Theatre, wrote in an e-mail. "He will be missed.''
Read died Feb. 27 from a heart attack in his Oceanside home. He was 73. His wife, Margaret, said he was taking medicine to correct an irregular heartbeat.
Despite retiring in 1997 following a 37-year career as a performing arts teacher in the Oceanside Unified School District, he remained active in the local theatre scene.
Read's appetite for performing arts clearly was no act. He lent physical and financial support to the cause, and those who worked with him marvel at the dedication he displayed.
"It was very important to him that the arts survived," his wife said. "That meant all arts, music, theater, film, everything."
Since 2005, Read had been a board member of New Village Arts, helping to move into its new Carlsbad location and achieve significant growth. He even sponsored actors from time to time, most recently for NVA's production of Hamlet.
"He was a walking, living reference library for all of us in theater," said Eliane Weidauer, the drama instructor at the Army-Navy Academy in Carlsbad. "I always told him he forgot more about performing arts than I will ever know."
Read and his wife moved to Oceanside in 1960 after he accepted the teaching assignment. He originally was stationed at the district office and would teach music at as many as four different schools per day.
"His car was his office," his wife said.
He started out teaching the violin and other string instruments, and eventually expanded to other instruments. His wife said he was so serious about his trade that when his classroom was unavailable one day at South Oceanside he conducted a trombone lesson in an electrician's closet.
"Good teachers adapt," Margaret Read said.
Read later became the drama instructor at El Camino High and oversaw construction of the school's Truax Theatre in 1982. He managed the theater for 15 years and implemented a program in which the school worked together with Oceanside High students, who were under the instruction of Weidauer at the time.
Even after retiring, he continued to assist drama students and programs. He recently went to the Army-Navy Academy to teach students technical aspects on the new large stage.
"He was very (generous with) his talents," said Weidauer, who has known Read since the mid-1970s when they worked together on a production at the old North County Playhouse. "He was very firm in his beliefs, but he would help anyone. He wanted to foster quality productions."
While acting wasn't his forte, he loved playing roles occasionally.
His wife said his favorite role was that of Mortimer Brewster's unhinged brother in "Arsenic and Old Lace," the bugle-blowing, hard-charging Teddy who thought he was Teddy Roosevelt. It was a character he had portrayed as far back as high school.
"He could put on quite an act if he wished," his wife said. "He could look you in the eye and tell you the sky is blue when it was in fact cloudy. And he'd make you believe him."
Read worked at many theaters, including MiraCosta College, Carlsbad Playreaders, Patio Playhouse, Long Beach Playhouse, The Theatre in Old Town, Pacific Coast Players, Actors Alliance and the San Diego Shakespeare Society. For twenty years he was a board member of the North Coast Repertory Theatre.
"He's going to be missed by a lot more than his family," his wife said.
While at Whittier College he met Margaret. They were set up by her roommate and later acted together in a campus production of "Inherit the Wind." They were married in 1958.
He was a history buff and loved to read. He became fascinated by genealogy and recently discovered a relative from the Mayflower, his wife said.
Read also had a fondness for elephants. He would spend time at their exhibits at the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park, and collected little elephant figurines. His wife said he has more than 100 elephant replicas, no two the same.
Marvin Hamilton Read
Son, Husband, Father, Grandfather - A Play in Many Acts
Cast in Order of Appearance
Father: Sala Hamilton Read
Mother: Nettie Pearl Hutchinson
Wife: Margaret Faye Fairfield
Daughters: Margaret Regina Read, and Merry Elizabeth (Read) Wadsworth
Son-in-Law: Joel Gibson Wadsworth
Grandchildren: Thomas-Joseph Read Cater, Elizabeth Ann Cater, Mathew Raymond Wadsworth, Natalie Renee Streeter, William Charles Wadsworth, Ryan Aguilar and Karyn Margaret Frederick
ACT ONE January 8, 1936 - birth in South Gate, California. 1953 - Bell Gardens High School, Teddy in Senior play "Arsenic and Old Lace." Salutatorian. 1957 - Whittier College, Magna Cum Laude.
ACT TWO 1958 - Marriage, Portland, Oregon. One year teaching music in Montebello 1958-1959.
ACT THREE 1960-1997 - Music Educator in Oceanside Unified School District. 1966 - Masters in Music (performance) SDSU. 1982-1997 - Drama Instructor and Truax Theatre manager El Camino High School.
ACT FOUR Patron of the Arts throughout North San Diego County. Musician, Director, Sound designer, actor, drama adjudicator. Avid historian, and film buff. Collector of elephant figurines and dabbler in genealogy.
FINAL ACT February 27, 2009, death in Oceanside, California
Curtain Falls Fade to Black
Obituary from North County Times
Remembering Marvin Read
OCEANSIDE ---- Marvin Read could play the piano or the trombone. He also could play Franklin Roosevelt or a disturbed man who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt.
When it came to performing arts, Read's talents were exceeded only by his versatility.
He was a teacher, a director, a musician, a sound designer, a conductor, a technician and an actor. For nearly 50 years he was an integral part of North County theater, doing just about everything but selling popcorn during the shows.
"His passion for theater was infectious and his generosity unmatched," Kristianne Kurner, executive artistic director of the New Village Arts Theatre, wrote in an e-mail. "He will be missed.''
Read died Feb. 27 from a heart attack in his Oceanside home. He was 73. His wife, Margaret, said he was taking medicine to correct an irregular heartbeat.
Despite retiring in 1997 following a 37-year career as a performing arts teacher in the Oceanside Unified School District, he remained active in the local theatre scene.
Read's appetite for performing arts clearly was no act. He lent physical and financial support to the cause, and those who worked with him marvel at the dedication he displayed.
"It was very important to him that the arts survived," his wife said. "That meant all arts, music, theater, film, everything."
Since 2005, Read had been a board member of New Village Arts, helping to move into its new Carlsbad location and achieve significant growth. He even sponsored actors from time to time, most recently for NVA's production of Hamlet.
"He was a walking, living reference library for all of us in theater," said Eliane Weidauer, the drama instructor at the Army-Navy Academy in Carlsbad. "I always told him he forgot more about performing arts than I will ever know."
Read and his wife moved to Oceanside in 1960 after he accepted the teaching assignment. He originally was stationed at the district office and would teach music at as many as four different schools per day.
"His car was his office," his wife said.
He started out teaching the violin and other string instruments, and eventually expanded to other instruments. His wife said he was so serious about his trade that when his classroom was unavailable one day at South Oceanside he conducted a trombone lesson in an electrician's closet.
"Good teachers adapt," Margaret Read said.
Read later became the drama instructor at El Camino High and oversaw construction of the school's Truax Theatre in 1982. He managed the theater for 15 years and implemented a program in which the school worked together with Oceanside High students, who were under the instruction of Weidauer at the time.
Even after retiring, he continued to assist drama students and programs. He recently went to the Army-Navy Academy to teach students technical aspects on the new large stage.
"He was very (generous with) his talents," said Weidauer, who has known Read since the mid-1970s when they worked together on a production at the old North County Playhouse. "He was very firm in his beliefs, but he would help anyone. He wanted to foster quality productions."
While acting wasn't his forte, he loved playing roles occasionally.
His wife said his favorite role was that of Mortimer Brewster's unhinged brother in "Arsenic and Old Lace," the bugle-blowing, hard-charging Teddy who thought he was Teddy Roosevelt. It was a character he had portrayed as far back as high school.
"He could put on quite an act if he wished," his wife said. "He could look you in the eye and tell you the sky is blue when it was in fact cloudy. And he'd make you believe him."
Read worked at many theaters, including MiraCosta College, Carlsbad Playreaders, Patio Playhouse, Long Beach Playhouse, The Theatre in Old Town, Pacific Coast Players, Actors Alliance and the San Diego Shakespeare Society. For twenty years he was a board member of the North Coast Repertory Theatre.
"He's going to be missed by a lot more than his family," his wife said.
While at Whittier College he met Margaret. They were set up by her roommate and later acted together in a campus production of "Inherit the Wind." They were married in 1958.
He was a history buff and loved to read. He became fascinated by genealogy and recently discovered a relative from the Mayflower, his wife said.
Read also had a fondness for elephants. He would spend time at their exhibits at the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park, and collected little elephant figurines. His wife said he has more than 100 elephant replicas, no two the same.
Gravesite Details
Ashes are interred with his parents, aunts and grandmother.
Family Members
Half Siblings
