Michael Guy Terry passed away on September 11, 2024. He died at home, snuggled with his wife Elizabeth in a hospital bed, with “his sweethearts,” Nico and Brendan, and daughter-in-law, Hayat, around him.
A garden designer, he was a member of Palisades Beautiful and the Pacific Palisades Garden Club. Michael was one of the volunteers, who singlehandedly rescued and continued the upkeep of the Xeriscape Garden on Temescal Canyon Road.
He was born in Berkeley, CA to Ann and JT Terry, on February 3, 1963. Mike’s family moved often: Van Nuys, Houston, Edmonton, IL, New Orleans and back to Houston.
He graduated from University of Texas Austin’s Plan II Honors Liberal Arts Program in 1985, then pursued advanced studies in Biopsychology at the University of Chicago, where he received his master’s degree.
While at college, he met his wife, Elizabeth, in the Office of Student Affairs. Their friendship developed into a lifelong love made official on June 18,1989, at the Riviera Country Club. Mike supported his family in their passions: he moved his fruit fly research to University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign when Elizabeth switched to a Clinical/Community Psychology program there.
In Urbana, Elizabeth completed her Ph.D. and children Nico (May 23, 1995) and Brendan (May 6, 1998) were born.
His wife said that living with Mike was like living with a dog: he dug holes and moved things around their garden – to mitigate the politics of academic research.
One winter walk on Will Rogers Beach, Mike realized that his passion had shifted to the garden design that was keeping him sane: he left academia to work in garden installation to get the dirt and experience under his fingernails that would enable his future designs to be both practical and beautiful. He then became sole designer for a design/installation firm in Illinois.
At the end of 2000, Elizabeth, Mike, Nico and Bren moved back to California to be closer to both sets of parents and to help Elizabeth’s father as Alzheimer’s stole her mother away.
Mike spent two-plus years working as a designer and learning the much broader palate of plants that could thrive in California, and then went freelance.
For Mike, community involvement centered around family. He supported both sons at Canyon Charter, New Roads School and their activities, which included Theatre Palisades Youth, track, soccer, theater, musical performances – and passions as they discovered rocks and minerals, art, chocolate, mixology and singing.
Mike always read and commented on their writings. He provided unwavering support for Elizabeth in the care of first her mother and, a decade later, her father. Even in his last two months, he supported his mother as much as he could as she coped with his father’s illness and death (July 9, 2024).
Where others might find a new home, Mike found a garden. Facts provided hardscape for the garden of life that Mike tended which integrated his values of family, community, sustainability, and love of learning and teaching
Barbara Marinacci introduced him to an abandoned native plant garden (across from Palisades High Continuation School). Peeking above “the impassibly thick eye-high exotic invasive weeds,” he could see the tops of “many larger native shrubs and trees that had survived a decade of neglect.
These native survivors provided a large-scale framework for a comprehensive re-design of the Native/Environmental/Xeriscape/ Temescal/Garden (N/E/X/T/Garden),” which was Mike’s passion pro bono project and began in the spring of 2010.
That garden grew his involvement with the Pacific Palisades Garden Club, Palisades Beautiful, California Native Plant Society, and the Theodore Payne Foundation. He integrated his loves: many New Roads (and Palisades High School) students received community service credit on “Last Saturdays” volunteering and learning about native plants and sustainability at the N/E/X/T/Garden.
Mike is survived by his mother, Annie, wife, Elizabeth, and sons, Nico and Brendan (Hayat).
A celebration of life is planned from 2 to 4 p.m. on November 10 at Rustic Canyon Park (program beginning at 2:30). In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to one of the groups that Mike most actively supported:
California Native Plant Society (https://www.cnps.org/give), Pacific Palisades Garden Club (https://pacpalgardenclub.org/donate%2Fcontact-us) and Theodore Payne Foundation (https://theodorepayne.org/memorial-giving/).
It was my privilege to have worked with Mike through Palisades Beautiful and to have known first hand his quiet enthusiasm for nature and volunteerism. It will be my privilege to attend the celebration of his life on Nov 9th- and to honor in my heart Barbara Marinacci ( also a consummate volunteer, also of Palisades Beautiful)who recently passed away .
I’m so sorry to learn of Mike’s passing. We shared a love of native plants.