Selden Spaulding ’44

Our quiet painter died Oct. 31, 2005, in San Francisco.

Denny, as he was known to most, was raised in Santa Barbara, Calif., and prepped at Laguna Blanca School and The Hill School. He earned his degree in art and archaeology in 1943, and was a member of Elm Club. He served two years as a general's aide-de-camp in Europe.

Beginning his lifetime devotion to painting, Denny moved to southern France in 1950. He painted mostly abstracts in Cannes, La Ciotat, and Paris, and had a show in Venice. Denny sent postcards to our class secretaries, hoping classmates would stop by to say hello.

Starting to gain recognition in the United States, he returned to Santa Barbara, expanded into landscapes, and had many shows along the California coast. By the 1980s, he moved to San Francisco, where he painted in his Victorian house in the Castro District and — after his hands failed — would walk the old neighborhoods.

Never married, Denny is survived by his sister, Ruth Seaman, and 12 loving nieces and nephews, including Blair Edwards '61 and Selden Edwards '63. His paintings reside in several collections. If we never got to say "hello" in those painting years, we say a proud and warm "farewell."

The Class of 1944