Obituaries

Eighty percent of life is just showing up, Woody Allen once said, or perhaps he said it’s 99%. Sometimes the quote is “success” instead of “life”, but for Christopher Boutelle, reliably showing up for everyone else was 100% of his successful and well lived life. All his life, Chris could be counted on to show up whenever anyone needed him, helping out with kindness and generosity.

In his family, he was first and foremost the loving uncle every family appreciates. His biological nieces and nephews were the offspring of his late brother Jonathan Boutelle (Annie, Phil, and Tommy) and of his brother Dr. William Boutelle (Jonathan, Laura and Xander). in the next generation, he was great-uncle to Phil’s kids Desmond, Elliette and Addie, as well as to nephew Jonathan’s sons Rohan and Vikram and Laura’s daughter Iona. He also was like an uncle to the daughters of his first cousin Michael O’Malley (Sara, Rachel and Eliza O’Malley) and their daughters Sophia and Isabel O’Malley-Krohn and Nora Hylton.

Beyond genetic ties, Chris was the glue that kept everyone in his extended family together. He remained good friends with Kim Tyler, his brother Jonathan’s former wife. His longstanding Thanksgiving tradition was to drive up from Los Angeles where he lived for a midday dinner with Kim and his nieces and nephews in Santa Cruz and then jump in his car, sometimes with brother Jonathan, and make it up to Berkeley in time for dessert with the families of his brother Will Boutelle and cousin Mike O’Malley and his old friend Neale McGoldrick. At the time of his death in an auto accident on November 22, he was setting out from LA on his way to northern California for the family Thanksgivings as usual. 

He showed up for everyone’s weddings, starting in 1960, when he was just fourteen. He rode alone on Greyhound busses from New Jersey where he lived with his parents to represent his family at his cousin Mike O’Malley’s wedding in Pasadena. 

Four decades later, in 1999, he and his beloved longtime partner Glenn Patterson went to India for the wedding of his nephew Jonathan Boutelle. Tragically, Glenn died suddenly on that trip. That’s when Chris stepped into yet another uncle role, becoming friend and mentor for Glenn’s nephew Nick DiFruscia for the rest of his life. 

He had a rich history of showing up for others in Los Angeles, where he had lived since the 1970s. He and Glenn moved to the Franklin Hills neighborhood in 1981, where they were active in their residents’ association. 

Chris served as president and vice president of the Franklin Hills Residents Association (FHRA). He joined the FHRA board thirty years ago, serving tirelessly as a pillar of his local community.  

Nick DiFruscia said that Chris spearheaded many projects, most notably decorating the neighborhood’s “Shakespeare Bridge” for the holidays, overseeing sales and distribution for their Overview newsletter, graffiti removal, street repair and stair clean-ups. Chris and Glenn became known for helping out older neighbors with home maintenance and in many other ways. 

Chris was not only an active member of FHRA, but he was very passionate about his civic duties, his work with the Democrats for Neighborhood Action, the Stonewall Democratic club and a variety of other causes that he not only contributed his time to, but financially supported. 

He had a long history in the motion picture and television industry, where he was active in his union, IATSE local 80, and the LA County branch of the AFL-CIO. 

Prior to his retirement, he was a Best Boy / Grip , working on many projects such as WKRP in Cincinnati, Charles In Charge, Father of The Bride, and so many others while closing out his career working on the daytime CBS talk show The Talk. 

And in this busy life he found time to be loyal for decades to many good friends from his youth. Born in Manhattan, he grew up in New Jersey. He attended Brown University, Foothill College and the University of Southern California. He and Neale McGoldrick, a friend from Brown days, took 28 memorable trips together all over the world. 

Much of his time over the years was spent in Santa Cruz, where he also had a home and many friends and relatives. Often he worked on creative projects there with his mother, Sara Holmes Boutelle, first biographer of the architect Julia Morgan, and his aunt, the artist Mary Holmes, who was a founding faculty member at the University of California Santa Cruz.  

His nephew Xander remembers that his uncle “built community and brought people together in all elements of his life, for our families, for his union, for his neighborhood association, for his political party, for his friends. His natural instinct was always to bring folks together.”  

All of Chris Boutelle’s family and friends, the many who loved him dearly, greatly miss him. A memorial gathering in Los Angeles is scheduled in April, COVID permitting, and there will be another in Santa Cruz in May. For information, write to becky.omalley2@gmail.com.