With recent developments regarding the historic designation of the home of the late oceanographer Walter Munk at La Jolla Shores and the Munk Lab of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, the name of Walter Munk (known as “Einstein of the Oceans”) has returned to the spotlight. .

The same goes for the name Judith Munk.

She may be known to many as Walter’s former wife, but she was an architectural designer and artist in her own right and actively participated in the design of these two famous properties. However, his involvement has been largely obscured.

Born Judith Horton, the Los Angeles-area native was encouraged from childhood to pursue creative endeavors, and she did so until her death in La Jolla in 2006 at the age of 81.

Her daughter Kendall Munk said she had “a colorful and adventurous mind and a talent that was very evident to those who knew her. She was good from the start.

From the time Judith was 9 or 10 she was drawing and sculpting, her daughter said. “She said she liked to play with mud or call her job a mud pie. She tended to downplay what she did, ”Kendall said.

When Judith attended Bennington College in Vermont, she worked under architect Richard Neutra and earned degrees in arts and architecture. Soon after, however, Judith was stricken with polio, which would affect her for the rest of her life. After her diagnosis, she moved to San Diego to live with her grandmother.

In San Diego, she studied with sculptor Donal Hord and was responsible for bringing a statue of Hord to the UC San Diego campus.

In 1951, she was hired as an illustrator for the current Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. She soon met the man who would be her husband, Walter. The two tied the knot two years later and had Kendall and her sister, Edie together.

As Judith’s health worsened, her mobility diminished. She went from using a cane to a walker to a wheelchair.

Nonetheless, she and Walter were constantly traveling, Kendall said. “As I got older, my parents always wanted to travel together. They have traveled around the world several times. Once she wanted to climb a mountain in Greece, so she was tied to a donkey. She was inspired by other cultures in terms of art and architecture.

She also studied acoustics and amphitheatres in other countries for an amphitheater project she was designing.

According to her obituary, Judith received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to design an amphitheater for lower Girard Avenue in La Jolla. The project failed but later became the amphitheater “The Folly” among the Munks, named Cuttlefish.

“When it got harder to navigate the aisles, she decided to bring him the theater,” and built an amphitheater in Cuttlefish, Kendall said. “She had a ‘why not’ attitude. Nothing prevented her from doing what she wanted to do.

In her wheelchair, Judith often wore elaborate hats – including one with a taxidermy squirrel – so people had something to look at when they looked down to see her.

Judith “always saw another way of doing things that nobody thought of,” both in life and in design, Kendall said. “She was feng shui before it was a thing here. She had a knack for the ladder and how humans felt comfortable on the ladder and how it created flow and energy. I think it came naturally to him.

Judith failed the math requirement to become a member of the American Institute of Architects. But she was later elected an honorary member of the San Diego chapter.

In 2008, she was posthumously inducted into the San Diego County Women’s Hall of Fame.

Historical spotlight

The Munk surname has returned to the forefront with historic reviews of Cuttlefish and the Munk Lab.

The house Judith and Walter built was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 12, against the wishes of Kendall and Edie.

The Judith and Walter Munk lab at Scripps Oceanography’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics was recommended for the National Registry by the State Historic Resources Commission on July 30.

When the state commission considered whether to recommend Seiche, Judith’s place in the process was highlighted.

Calling Judith a “leading artist and architectural designer,” state historian Amy Crain said the house was designed in the modern architectural style and that “despite the alterations, the property retains all aspects of its original design. ‘integrity to convey its importance’.

More recently, when the San Diego Historic Resources Board reviewed the IGPP lab to see whether to support its historic list, Judith was brought up again.

Walter’s widow, Mary Coakley Munk, said the appointment should “properly recognize” Judith’s role in “the location, development and design of the lab, as well as her other contributions to the design of the campus of the UCSD “.

La Jolla architect Ione Steigler noted “how important Judith Munk’s role has been in the arc of modern architecture in San Diego, and how little recognition women have for their roles during this period. period”.

She said Judith “had an incredible ability to bring artists, architects and landscapers together and helped shape it all to help scientists get the most out of this research center. … Letters were written from the construction of the building by scientists specifically recognizing its role. ◆