A Positive Tribute To A Tragic Crime -- Goldmark Family Memorialized On Park Plaque

On the city's first monument to the murdered - a plaque set into a black wall of basalt boulders - someone has placed a clutch of lilacs.

"This Overlook is Named in Memory of Charles, Annie, Derek and Colin Goldmark, Who Loved Seattle and Its Open Spaces," reads the plaque, which depicts a family of four strolling along a lake shore.

Two bicyclists squeak to a stop and lean over the plaque. One shakes his head.

Then an old friend pulls up in a van. She stares at the plaque with her daughter, whom she named after Annie Goldmark.

"It was such a cruel crime at such a beautiful time of year," said the friend, Jennifer Christian, who lives in Anchorage now.

Christian stood at Madrona Drive and Lake Washington Boulevard, where the Goldmark Overlook was dedicated recently in honor of the four Goldmarks, who were stabbed and beaten to death in their Madrona home six years ago on Christmas Eve. The killer, David Lewis Rice, is on death row.

Like any big city, Seattle has memorials to heroes, founders, fallen police officers and soldiers. The Goldmark Overlook is the first such recognition of private citizens who became murder victims.

"The Goldmark Foundation's intent was not to etch the crime indelibly in people's minds but rather to pay tribute to the positive side of the family, the things they stood for, their values and, frankly, the positive things in the community that make up Seattle," said Kevin Kelly, a former co-worker of Charles Goldmark and a director of the foundation.

The foundation donated $15,000 for the $83,000 overlook, which looks south across Lake Washington toward Mount Rainier. It is one of a chain of projects the city Parks and recreation department has undertaken to beautify the lakefront.

"It was a nice marriage," says Tim Motzer, a project manager with the city Parks and Recreation Department. "They were able to provide a physical improvement to honor the Goldmark family, and we needed funds to complete the wall."

The overlook is only the most visible tribute to the slain family. Since the Goldmark Foundation formed in 1986, it has contributed more than $200,000 to various local causes. The total rises to $500,000 when matching dollars from the recipient groups are taken into account.

The foundation is now just about out of money, having given away most of the fund's interest and principal, Kelly said. Its directors are happy with the foundation's work and are not sure whether they will raise more money.

The foundation has contributed to a range of organizations its directors felt the Goldmarks would have supported if they had lived.

Charles Goldmark, 41, was active in local community affairs and public-interest law. He and Annie, 43, and their two sons, Derek, 12, and Colin, 10, also loved the outdoors.

At first the foundation focused its charitable efforts on small nonprofit groups that needed modest boosts - $2,500 or so. Recent grants, however, have been more substantial - in the $25,000 range - and are intended to make a more enduring impact.

Some grants went to:

-- The YMCA, to help poor children attend Camp Orkila on San Juan Island. Both Goldmark boys camped there.

-- The nonprofit Legal Foundation of Washington, to pay for the Goldmark Equal Access to Justice Internships. Law students, or new attorneys, will use the internships to provide legal help to organizations that can't usually afford it. Charles Goldmark was one of the founders of the legal foundation.

-- The Seattle-Nantes Sister City Association, to pay for scholarships so people can further Franco-American understanding. Annie Goldmark was French by birth.

Donations also went to the Bush School, where the Goldmark boys were students. The foundation also contributed to Harborview Medical Center and the Victims Assistance Unit of the Seattle Police Department; friends have hailed the efforts of the hospital and the police in the murders' aftermath.

The response to the Goldmarks' death has been generous and unique. But the murders themselves already had been distinguished by their savagery and senselessness.

"These were people just like you and me with kids in the community who were positive people," Kelly said. "They had done nothing wrong, had not been in the wrong place, had not provoked ill will, and on Christmas Eve they were murdered. Murdered for no reason."

Jennifer Christian, the friend from Anchorage, and Annie Goldmark had gone through pregnancies together. Christian even went into labor in the Goldmark's 36th avenue home.

She remember her friend as a fine cook - "very lively and very funny."

"There was a lot of support and love for the Goldmark family in Madrona," said Christian. "Now, when we come back to Seattle, there's just a big hole for us here."