Benella Caminiti, 85, defended parks

An environmentalist and community activist, Benella Caminiti agitated for 35 years on behalf of public spaces in and around Seattle.

She helped keep the Woodland Park Zoo from spreading across Aurora Avenue North and prevent the Seattle Aquarium from being located at Golden Gardens Park. She pushed back when Teatro ZinZanni tried to locate on Green Lake.

Impassioned and articulate, Ms. Caminiti held forth on other issues as well. Her opposition to the Hammering Man sculpture in downtown Seattle was clear in a 1991 letter to The Seattle Times: "It's certainly an aesthetic atrocity, an insult from the Seattle Art Commission to every working man and woman."

Ms. Caminiti died in her sleep Nov. 25 at her son's home in Lake Stevens. She was 85.

"She was a powerhouse," said Patricia Stambor, who met Ms. Caminiti in 1996 to ask for help in fighting a development in Discovery Park. "She was not afraid to take on anything and was not intimidated by anybody."

Ms. Caminiti's most important legacy might be the result of a lawsuit she filed in the 1980s trying to prevent homeowners from building docks on public shorelines. Although she lost the case, Ms. Caminiti pushed the Washington Supreme Court to set a precedent that has since protected navigable waters, tidelands and shorelines for public access.

Almost immediately, the precedent of the public-trust doctrine was used to protect Padilla Bay from a Venetian-style real-estate development.

Ms. Caminiti was born in Lamar, Colo., in 1922 and earned a bachelor's degree in zoology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She and her sister, Edith, served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II, her son said.

Named for a small town in Australia, Benella Gallup married John Caminiti in 1959. Five years later they moved to Seattle, where Ms. Caminiti became a research analyst at the University of Washington Regional Primate Research Center. She retired as its manager in 1988.

Her only child, John, remembers his mother as an independent, well-read woman who was often at the center of conversation at gatherings. She loved reading and gardening, and covered her small yard on the north side of Queen Anne Hill with peonies.

Ms. Caminiti never felt compelled to remarry after divorcing John's father in the 1970s, her son said, and she became an activist at age 50 as a result of the family Irish setter.

"We had to get this dog out for walks," John said, "and we were in Woodland Park and got talking to folks there about a plan the zoo had to expand across Highway 99."

His mom joined a small group of people opposing the expansion, both to save the park and because she was "a hater of zoos," he said. From her work, she was aware of some animals dying in transit.

Ms. Caminiti became an expert on shoreline preservation, serving on the boards of the Washington Environmental Council and the Spokane-based Center for Environmental Law and Policy. She was a founder of the Seattle Shorelines Coalition and a longtime member of the League of Women Voters.

A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Bleitz Funeral Home, 316 Florentia St., Seattle. Ms. Caminiti's son suggests remembrances in his mother's name be sent to the Center for Environmental Law and Policy or other environmental causes.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com