Art Patron Iris Adam Dies
Iris Adam receiving an Art Star award. Iris Arnold Adam, a Laguna Beach arts patron and watercolorist, passed away Jan. 30, 2010. She was 91.
In her honor, Art-A-Fair and June Neptune will host a celebration of her life at Tivoli Too!, 777 Laguna Canyon Road, tonight, Friday, Feb. 5, at 6 p.m., open to her friends and family.
A memorial service will also be held Saturday, Feb. 6, at noon at Pacific View Memorial Park Chapel in Corona del Mar. A reception follows at 3 p.m. in Laguna Woods at the Clubhouse One Art Gallery.
Adam was a resident of Laguna Beach for many decades and served the city as an Art Commissioner for 14 years. She was an exhibiting artist for 32 years at Art-A-Fair, the juried art festival held each summer in Laguna Canyon. Adam’s work has been displayed in numerous galleries locally and elsewhere in the country.
In 2002, Adam was named most outstanding woman in the arts by the American Association of University Women’s Laguna Beach Foundation. Last year, she was a nominee for a Laguna Beach Art Stars award.
Adam was an integral part of Art-A-Fair, the least well known of Laguna’s three annual art festivals. In addition to being an active senior board member, she owned the property where Art- A-Fair is located. Her passion for art was present in her work and her friendship and mentoring to other artists. “Iris was an artist, sister, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and always a friend of the artists and our community. She will be deeply missed, but through her accomplishments, her presence will be with us always,” said Scooter Brewer, Art-A-Fair’s board president.
Born Nov. 9, 1918, in London, England, Iris Arnold came to the U.S. at the age of four. Her father was a championship boxer and her mother a vaudeville actress. She displayed her father’s fighting characteristics throughout her life, most recently as she battled cancer for 14 years.
In 1937, Iris married Vetold J. Adam, also an arts patron and a previous president of Art-AFair.
Adam received her teaching certificate from UCLA and went on to teach Chinese brush and water color at Saddleback College and other art organizations. She was a board member of Water Color West and the National Water Color Society.
Adam is survived by her sister, Claire, who resides in England; her daughter, Coral Bodnar of Laguna Woods; four grandchildren, Scott, Christy, Bradon, and Dede, and six great grandchildren.
Friends, artists and anyone who knew and loved Adam are encouraged to share stories, photographs and memories at the celebration that takes place tonight.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be made in Adam’s name to her favorite charities: Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Orange County, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, Disabled American Veterans or Paralyzed Veterans of America. For further information, please contact Scooter Brewer at mbplusrb@ cox.net.
Dave Buttles
Dave Buttles, a former LBHS head baseball coach, passed away Monday, Feb. 1 from cancer.
A memorial service is planned for Feb. 12 at the College of the Desert in Palm Springs, where he had been working.
Buttles coached in 1990 and 1991, earning two fourth-place finishes in the Pacific Coast League and a 14-31-1 career mark at LBHS.
