Longtime Malibu community activist Mary Kay Kamath died at home in Santa Barbara on Aug. 22, following a long illness.
Kamath served three terms on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board and briefly on the Santa Monica College Board. She was the second person from Malibu to serve and the first to come from the school community, having been a longtime leader and tireless volunteer in the PTA. She was on the board when the decision was made to close Point Dume Elementary School, where her own children had attended, and she voted to establish Malibu High School.
Connie Jenkins wrote of Kamath that she “believed that one’s interest was best served by doing the right thing rather than the convenient thing. She believed strongly in tolerance but was most intolerant of selfish behavior, bigotry and hypocrisy. She was a careful listener who commanded respect when she herself spoke. Kamath believed in the essential need for people to do well, in spoiling children, in baking homemade cookies and in using one tea bag for the entire day. Becoming a friend of Mary Kay was, for me, love at first sight.
“Having survived breast cancer in the mid-70s, Kamath regarded the rest of her life as a precious gift. It was indeed to all of us who knew her. Her husband, Sanjiv, has said that Mary Kay did not want a memorial service, but that if people wished to act in her memory, they should donate to the charity of their choice.”