Wallace Gerald Venable

Wallace Gerald (Gerry) Venable passed into eternity peacefully on November 1, 2025, at the age of 86, in Lisbon, Maine. Gerry was born in Charleston, SC, to the late Cornelius and Katharine (Maynard) Venable. He grew up in North Wilkesboro, NC, and Cheraw, SC.

He attended North Carolina State University and the University of Michigan, obtaining a degree in architecture from the former. Gerry began his long career as an architect, landscape architect, and planner at Lyle, Bisset, Carlyle, and Wolf in Raleigh, NC. He moved to Sasaki Associates in Watertown, MA, for fourteen years, living in Needham and Boston. Before relocating to Hilton Head Island, he worked briefly for CBT Childs, Bertram, and Tseckares in Boston. Among many projects, Gerry worked on the master plan for SUNY/Buffalo and was the project manager for Christopher Columbus (Waterfront) Park in Boston. He worked all over the world, including on a project for the Aga Khan in Paris, the proposal for a project in Hawaii, and parks in Seattle and New York City, as well as a master plan for the streetscape of Highland Park, IL. He was fond of saying that although he had never attended the Harvard School of Design, he had taught at the Radcliffe Seminars. He worked for the Queen’s architect in London and lived in London with his family for a summer. When he moved to Hilton Head Island, he started his own company, The Venable Group, which specialized in landscape design. He designed bike paths for the town of Hilton Head. He retired to Atlanta, GA, later relocating to Los Angeles, CA; Needham, MA; York, ME.

Apart from his architectural career, Gerry was an avid chess player, artist, and Patriots fan. He leaves behind two murals of the California coast and many watercolor paintings. He was an athlete who played football in high school, later turning to tennis, skiing, and golf. He ran the Boston Marathon twice, completing the course even though he was not an official entrant, at the ages of forty and fifty. Everywhere he lived, he brought his Baha’I faith. He also made friends from Los Angeles to Atlanta to Massachusetts and Maine.

Gerry is survived by his five children: Karin (Peter) of York, ME; Janine (Tim) of Culver City, CA; and Amy of Camarillo, CA; and their mother, Laura; Luke (Laura) of Florence, SC; Sarah (Jack) of Atlanta, GA; and their mother, Claudia. He is survived by his nine grandchildren: Shannon (Peter); Margaret; James (Sarah); Emily; Theodore; Richard; Emma; Lucien; and Leona – and by his two great- grandchildren, Anneliese and Johanna. He is survived by his brother James of Monticello, ME, and predeceased by his brother Art and sister Kaye.

Gerry will be greatly missed for his sparkling blue eyes, his lively sense of humor, his love of travel, and the stories he loved to tell.

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