Judith Landau

In Loving Memory

Judith Hessler Wickware Landau was born on April 17, 1939 in the small town of Mars, Pennsylvania. She was adopted by George and Betty Hessler. Betty was a social worker for the Veterans Administration..George worked for a local railway and then for the Mars school district. They did everything they could to see that she got a wonderful education..

After high school Judith went to Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio. When she graduated her parents agreed to send her to the San Francisco Bay area with Anna Halprin a noted Modern Dancer who had a dance company in Mill Valley CA. Her mother visited her and convinced her to enroll in graduate school. She chose Mills College, a women’s school in Oakland CA. and enrolled in their dance program and danced with Anna Halprin at the same time. She also worked part time at the Oakland Recreation Department and Langley Porter institute in San Francisco.

Judith met Potter Wickware at a rooming house in Oakland and married him in 1963. Potter was studying at the University of California in Berkeley. They had two children, Noah in 1965 and Miranda in 1963 and a house in North Oakland. She continued working and dancing with Anna Halprin studying improvisational performance and worked part time where she could use what she was learning with Anna while working with young people and using movement to allow them to discover themselves. She received a master’s degree from Mills College. At that time Judith and Pete separated and later divorced.

Judith was asked to join the staff at a school for children with learning disabilities run by her friend Carolyn Brown. Judith’s role was to use movement and dance therapy to work with all the students. At this time I, Charles Landau came to work at the same school. I was working as a carpenter to pay for my university. I had studied learning disabilities as a psych major and was very interested. I got a job as a volunteer for the second half of that year. The next year I gave up my full-time carpentry job and worked full-time as a teacher and part time as a carpenter. Judith and I worked together part of the time at school. I would bring my class of the oldest rowdiest kids to her class. We became friends and colleagues.

After school closed for the summer Judith and I decided to live together. We bought a fixer upper in the Oakland hills. That summer I got a contract for a couple who lived down the road from us. Judith designed their pole house that used pressure treated posts 14’ into the ground on the steep lot. Why would we start with something so complicated? I had read about this system of building and wanted to do something a little more challenging. We always enjoyed challenging each other. We realized we had compatibility and love all wound up together. We got married on New Year’s Day when Judith’s mother was visiting. We married in the little house we had remodeled with some of our family and friends around.

Two years later we sold our little cabin and headed to Port Townsend, a lovely town we discovered when looking for a new place to live. It was a big change, but we are still here 49 years later. We lived in a Victorian home built in 1890 for two years. We fixed it up and moved 6 miles out of town to the country on a 20-acre piece of property where we built a little farm and learned how to build timber framed houses and Judith became a master designer architect, she had so much rumbling around in her brain. It has always been a delight and often a surprise to live with her. Miranda and Noah and our adopted son Raju from India all learned how to live on a farm, eat the food we grew and care for the cows, pigs, chickens, sheep and horses that we lived with. They understood quite quickly that food didn’t grow in neat Styrofoam boxes covered with plastic film.

While living in Port Townsend Judith had several careers. Judith had studied Polarity Massage with Dr. Stone, an English Dr. who had studied this therapy in India. When we first moved to Port Townsend, she continued this private practice that she had started in Berkeley. She continued this practice for about eight years with private clients.

Over the next ten years Pete (Potter) and Judith and I renewed our friendship. Pete and I joined forces to help pay for our oldest Granddaughters college. It’s interesting because of our backgrounds and early history we probably have more in common than we do with our other friends, so we enjoy seeing him. We often get together around thanksgiving. Emma has been a teacher and a social worker with a very active life and a wonderful Husband Jovanie, and their son named Jerimia. Sam, the next born six months after Emma is a Forest Ranger Currently in Alaska and only two days ago engaged to Amanda. Ellie, the next born, lives with her mate Ryan whom she is marrying in a couple of weeks, and they have a seven-year-old girl named Sofia. Jack, Noah’s second son is in Japan teaching and Raju lives in Reno.

Judith won many awards for her design work over the years. I think what made her such a good designer is that she worked so well with her clients while listening to them and was willing to challenge them when an idea was not a good fit. She was a founding member of two women’s groups, both of which are still going on. She is soft spoken. I miss her terribly especially when I come home and become so aware of her absence although occasionally, I catch sight of her out of the corner of my eye and know she is still with me. My soul mate.