Mill Valley

Kenneth Osaki has died at the age of 97. He passed peacefully in his Mill Valley home with family around him.

Our father Ken enjoyed a long active life. While more recently confined to a wheelchair he still rose early each morning with a big smile, a clear mind and a hearty appetite. Ken was born October 1927 in Sacramento California to a Japanese immigrant farming family. While still a young boy he and his older sister Yuki were sent to Japan to be raised by their grandparents. According to our dad’s stories he made the best of his young life in a small village in Wakayama prefecture. Ken was not a good student and often “played hooky” wandering in the woods and getting into other mischief. Ken turned 18 at the end of WW II and enlisted in the Japanese navy where he was assigned to ships that traveled the south seas to pick up stranded Japanese soldiers. With his US citizenship Ken was able to return to the United States in 1949. He lived in San Francisco where he worked as a shipping clerk. Sometime later he became a gardener working at homes in San Francisco and Marin County.

While in San Francisco he met and courted Chizuko Morizumi. They married in 1954 and raised a family including 3 children: Steven, David and Christine. In 1957 he moved to Mill Valley where he lived next door to his generous benefactor Dorothy deGuerre for many years.

To his credit Ken studied hard and earned his landscape contracting license leveraging it to design and build many beautiful gardens in Marin County. His collaboration on exhibits won awards at the Marin Art and Garden Center. In 1990 Ken and his wife Chizuko had their dream home designed and built in Mill Valley.

Our dad loved the outdoors, SF Giants baseball, westerns, bonsai and a succession of Miniature Schnauzer and Shiba Inu dogs. Our dad was especially crazy about fishing.

He frequently dove for abalone and visited fishing streams in northern California to catch trout. Fishing trips to British Columbia where he caught salmon and halibut were an annual pilgrimage.

Our mom passed in 2007. His daughter Christine passed in 2015. Kenneth is survived by his sons David and Steven (daughter-in-law Suzanne) along with grandchildren Shane, Reed and Maddi. While far from perfect our dad was friendly, generous and maintained a positive outlook on life until the end.

Per our father’s instructions there is a cremation and no service. A celebration of his life is planned TBD. It is a sad and strange feeling to not have him with us...