Millicent Clute (Schonborn) Cajina

                     December 4, 1943 – July 17, 2018

                                                    Albany, California

My beautiful wife and best friend, Millicent Clute Cajina, left this vale of tears on July 17, 2018, at 74 years, leaving me and her other loved ones with a profound emptiness. Millie had suffered for years from congenital heart failure, leading to fatal cardio-pulmonary arrest. She leaves behind our daughter, Vanessa, and two step-sons, Stefan (Jeanne) and Alexis (Nicole), whom she raised, as well as a brother, George Harris Clute (Suzanne). Millie was born on December 4, 1943 to George and Margaret Clute in Berkeley, California. She was raised in Palo Alto, where she attended Palo Alto High School, and received her BA and MFA degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. She also studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA). She was an accomplished painter who exhibited both on the East Coast and in the Bay Area. Millie met and married Robert Cajina while both were employed on the Cal campus. They spent 40 wonderful, inseparable years together in a loving relationship. Millie retired in 2004 from the University of California at Berkeley as an Administrator in Financial and Business Services, having proudly devoted her career in the service of public higher education.

Besides her artistic gifts, Millie was a superb cook and foodie, having dined at some of the world's finest restaurants. She and Robert drank fine wine and were no strangers to the French Laundry. She was also a great crossword puzzle sleuth and loved English mystery novels. So too was she a splendid seamstress who designed and sewed Vanessa's formal attire, in addition to some of the finest Star Wars Halloween costumes of the 1970s. And, of course, she cheerfully mended Robert's and the boys' well-worn clothing. A most favored activity for Millie and Robert were long, refreshing weekend trips to the best of Northern California's wonder: Big Sur, Pacific Grove, Point Reyes, Healdsburg, Calistoga and, especially, their favorite dining locus, Yountville.
Rest in peace, my love.

Robert Cajina

Published in San Francisco Chronicle from Sept. 16 to Sept. 18, 2018