Goldmark Memorial -- Keeping Their Love For Seattle Alive

CHARLES and Annie Goldmark and their two young sons, Derek and Colin, loved Seattle so much that death could not stop their giving.

Friends quickly formed a foundation after the Goldmarks were stabbed and beaten in a senseless, savage attack in their Madrona home six years ago on Christmas Eve. Their killer, David Lewis Rice, is on death row.

Since 1986, the Goldmark Foundation has contributed more than $200,000 to various local causes, with the total rising to $500,000 counting matching dollars from recipient groups. It is what Charles, 41, active in community affairs and public-interest law, and Annie, 43, would have done.

Murdered for no reason, the Goldmarks' legacy of giving is a memorial to their values.

Money has gone to provide legal help to organizations that can't usually afford it. It has helped poor children attend YMCA Camp Orkila on Orcas Island - because Derek, 12, and Colin, 10, had so much fun there.

The lakefront the Goldmarks treasured has been enhanced by a $15,000 contribution to the city Parks and Recreation Department's $83,000 overlook at Madrona Drive and Lake Washington Boulevard.

They are remembered by a plaque showing a mother and father and two young sons walking the shore of Lake Washington with Mount Rainier in the background. It is the city's first recognition of private citizens who became murder victims.

There is a simple inscription on the plaque: "This overlook is named in memory of Charles, Annie, Derek and Colin Goldmark who loved Seattle and its open spaces."

The figures on the plaque seem so alive. In many giving ways, they are.