A memorial park bench is proposed to be installed along the Bay Trail in Richmond in honor of a woman who adored the shoreline.
Deniz Göktürk, daughter of the late Pia Angela Göktürk, aims to donate the memorial bench to the city to honor her mother’s “love for water views.”
If the donation is approved by the Richmond City Council, the memorial bench will be installed on the Bay Trail near Barbara and Jay Vincent Park, facing the water. An in-kind donation of about $1,500 would be used by the city to purchase and install the bench, the city stated.
Pia Angela Göktürk passed away on March 9, 2020 at 92, and the shores of the East Bay were her favorite places to visit, even when she was bound to a wheelchair, according to her daughter.
“…Especially Point Richmond and the area around Richmond Marina/Shimada Friendship Park/Rosie the Riveter,” Deniz Göktürk stated in a letter to the city. “Water views always had a special place in her life – in Konstanz, Germany, where she was born in 1927 near the lake of Konstanz and the river Rhein, and Istanbul, Turkey, where she lived and taught for over 50 years, overlooking the waters of the Bosporus. Therefore, we believe she would be best remembered with a memorial bench by the water.”
