Raymond G. Handley
1923-June 14, 2009
Los Altos, California

Raymond G. Handley, 86, a resident of Los Altos, died June 14 at home with his family.

He was born in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) and was raised in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana) until the age of 16, when he left to attend the University of Maryland.

In 1947 he moved to California and, after partnering with Ray Renault, founded Renault & Handley Industrial and Commercial Real Estate in 1952. The company developed the first buildings for Silicon Valley high-tech giants Intel, Fairchild, National Semiconductor and Raytheon.

He developed the first solar-powered building in Silicon Valley in the 1970s. He was an avid traveler and art connoisseur, visiting remote locations in such places as Papua New Guinea, Africa and Tibet. He organized a project in the 1980s responsible for drilling over 50 water wells for Dogon villages in Mali.

In the mid-1970s he established Folk Art International Foundation/Xanadu Gallery, a business which allowed him to continue traveling and indulging his passion for art. He also established the Folk Art International Resources for Education program, which supplies Northern California schools and educational facilities with ethnic studies resources.

He was a prominent figure in the Bay Area real estate scene; he built and opened Dinah's Garden Hotel in 1957, added Trader Vic's restaurant in 2001 and was the co-owner (with his daughter, Milla) of Handley Cellars winery in Mendocino County. In the late 1990s he purchased the Frank Lloyd Wright house in San Francisco to house his Xanadu Gallery. He was a generous donor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

He is survived by his wife, Marsha Vargas Handley of Los Altos, Calif.; daughters, Julia Handley of Honolulu, Hawaii, and Milla Handley of Philo, Calif.; and two granddaughters.

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