Virginia Fletcher Hawk Church; helped create arts center

By Jack Williams
STAFF WRITER / San Diego Union-Tribune

January 8, 2005

To Virginia Fletcher Hawk Church, no community could be complete without the cultural blessings of a quality performing arts venue.

Inspired by the vision of her father, pioneering developer Col. Edward Fletcher, Mrs. Church became a driving force in the 1970s for creating the East County Performing Arts Center in El Cajon.

Learning that Grossmont College had allocated $800,000 to build an auditorium, she suggested a collaborative effort with the city of El Cajon for a more ambitious project.

With Dr. Sydney Wiener and Henrietta Harelson providing additional impetus, ground was broken in July 1975 and the $2.5 million, 1,000-plus seat theater opened in March 1977.

Mrs. Church, who later established and endowed an operatic vocal scholarship that bears her name, died Sunday at her home in El Cajon. She was 86.

The cause of death was pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed Dec. 15, said her daughter, Mary Catherine Soderberg.

Blessed with an engaging soprano voice, which she refined with lessons during her youth, Mrs. Church was a frequent soloist in church choirs. She also sang in retirement communities, continuing an interest in the welfare of seniors that she developed as a young woman.

Mrs. Church learned many of her compassionate traits from her mother, Soderberg said. "My grandmother would make doughnuts and leave them for the homeless," she once said.

Mrs. Church provided financial support to needy families and visited seniors who were confined to their homes.

"A lot of people visualized a community of their dreams," said her son John. "My mother was actively making it happen, making it a better place to be through music or supporting the homeless. She had a passion for her community that came from the heart."

Born at Mercy Hospital, Mrs. Church was the 10th and youngest child of Col. Edward and Mary B. Fletcher.

Her father, a New England native after whom Fletcher Hills was named, came to what now is Rancho Bernardo in 1888.

He entered the real estate business in 1908 and teamed with William Gross in developing the Grossmont and Mount Helix communities. He later play a key role in developing Solana Beach, Del Mar and parts of San Diego and laying out the county's road and water systems.

Mrs. Church grew up in the family's downtown San Diego home at Eighth Avenue and Ash Street and graduated from San Diego High School. She attended the University of Southern California for two years, singing in the John Smallman a cappella choir and majoring in business.

In spring 1938, she left USC after marrying naval officer Claude Vernon Hawk, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate.

After he retired as a captain in 1957, the family settled in Lockport, N.Y., where he worked for General Motors.

In 1967, the then-Mrs. Hawk and her husband settled in Fletcher Hills. She became a generous supporter of San Diego Opera and sang in the choir at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, where she was a chalice bearer and lay reader.

Mrs. Church was a four-time president of PEO Sisterhood, Chapter FW, and in 1980 established the Virginia F. and Susan G. Hawk Operatic Vocal Scholarship Competition.

In recent years, she was designated as an honorary trustee of the Arts Foundation in El Cajon.

Capt. Hawk died in 1990, and in 1996 Mrs. Church married Clifford H. Church, a one-time Alaskan. During her second marriage, she served as president of the Alaska-Yukon Club of San Diego.

Her second husband died in 1998. A daughter, Susan Grace Hawk, died in 1976.

Survivors, in addition to daughter Mary Catherine Soderberg of Raleigh, N.C., include sons Thomas Fletcher Hawk of Cumberland, Md., Robert Leason Hawk of East Hardwick, Vt., and John Edward Hawk of Colorado Springs, Colo.; a sister, Mary Louise Glanz of La Jolla; a brother, Ferdinand T. Fletcher of San Diego; and seven grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Monday at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, 6556 Park Ridge Blvd.

Donations are suggested to St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church or to the Women's Committee of the Grossmont Concert Association for the Hawk Vocal Scholarship, in care of Barbara Oppenheimer, treasurer, La Vida Real, G-1077, 11580 Via Rancho San Diego, Rancho San Diego, CA 92019.