Former and current board members, walkers, family, friends, and other well-wishers honored Jacque Ensign at the top of the path newly named for her, next to Los Angeles Avenue below Marin Circle.
The official opening of Jacque Ensign Way on September 19 also was a stroll down memory lane, a time to reminisce about the founding of Berkeley Path Wanderers Association and to marvel at what the organization has accomplished.
The path, a tribute to BPWA’s first president, parallels Los Angeles Avenue, below the Marin traffic circle. It is one of four public walkways recently renamed to honor the four women who started Path Wanderers in 1998.
Two of the other paths are not yet completed: Eleanor Hall Gibson Path (#49), off Keith Avenue near Shasta Road; and Patricia DeVito Path (#71), between Sterling and Miller Avenues. Ruth Armstrong Path is open on UC Berkeley land and links Hearst Avenue and Berkeley Way.
“This day was a long time coming,” former BPWA president Colleen Neff told the crowd of about 75 people gathered at the top of Jacque Ensign Way, a dirt path formerly known as Green Path that provides easy access from Marin Circle to the top of Solano Avenue.
Referring to the intense effort it took to get approval for renaming the four paths, Neff said, “There were lots of hurdles, lots of meetings, and lots of men to convince. But we also have a lot of people to thank, including City Council members Sophie Hahn and Susan Wengraf and the late Betty Olds, the Council member who provided the seed money for the first edition of our Berkeley and Its Pathways map.”
Jacque’s eponymous path
Jacque Ensign and her daughters Susan Ensign of Tempe, Arizona (left), and Jane Johnston of Portland, Ore. (right).
For Ensign, a retired social worker who recently turned 90, the ceremony and ribbon cutting — followed by cupcakes — capped her years of hard work to ensure the survival of the paths and stairways that she has loved and used her whole life.
She still lives in the home on Shattuck Avenue where she grew up. Long ago, she would use the path that now bears her name to reach the Oaks Theater on Solano Avenue, where she paid a quarter to watch a movie.
“I’m delighted to have a path named for me that I frequently used as a kid,” she said. “I’m also pleased that BPWA, with its strong, rotating board, has been able to provide a needed resource in Berkeley.” Ensign noted that the first board had set the dues for the fledging organization at an affordable $5, an amount that hasn’t increased.
Honoring our founders
Ensign was the only BPWA founder at the event, which included numerous current and former board members as well as many grateful path walkers.
Ruth Armstrong, an artist, now lives in Cambria, California. She was a strong supporter of Berkeley’s parks and realized that a grassroots organization was needed to preserve Berkeley’s paths. Pat DeVito, a retired attorney who worked for the Parks Department, was unable to attend. She drafted our bylaws and wrote a detailed history of BPWA.
Sadly, Eleanor Hall Gibson, passed away in 2016 at age 96. A retired special education teacher, Eleanor helped write our mission statement, took meticulous minutes of BPWA meetings, and set up a database of volunteers. Austene Hall, Eleanor’s daughter, said that she was carrying her mother’s spirit that day.
“Path Wanderers was so much a part of her life,” Hall said. “In the beginning, it really was a team effort that generated so many ideas for the paths and found ways to accomplish them.”
Origins of iconic paths map
Karen Kemp, a graphic artist and member of the original BPWA board, recalled the evolution of BPWA’s iconic path map. She designed the original one but credited Jacque for perceiving the importance of an accurate, comprehensive map of Berkeley’s path system. “Jacque was full of inspiration and creativity,” said Kemp, who recently helped BPWA to reissue the notecards that she designed 20 years ago.
Now in its 9th edition, the map has sold more than 40,000 copies and helped countless walkers explore the Berkeley paths.
That edition already is slightly outdated, BPWA President Alina Constantinescu told the audience. “We just finished Hilgard Path two weeks ago. When BPWA began, 58 planned city-own paths had not been finished, but only 22 are left, thanks to the efforts of our volunteer path builders.”
That accomplishment would not have happened, Ensign stressed, without the leadership and diplomatic skills of Charlie Bowen, another original board member and co-lead of BPWA’s path-building team. Over the years, Ensign explained, Charlie worked with neighbors and city officials to enable BPWA to complete so many paths, some of which had been blocked by fences, dog runs, and landscaping.
Ensign recently has been campaigning to add handrails to many of those steep new paths.“We need a lot of donations for handrails to ensure that the paths are accessible and safe for people like me,” she said, explaining that handrails cost between $20,000 and $30,000.
Then, remembering all the maps and gear stowed in her basement, Ensign added, “My major contribution to BPWA these days is storage!”
BPWA unveiled its new Berkeley paths map bandana at the event. NAME checks out the map as Elsa Tranter (right) and Abby Rutchick staff the busy BPWA swag table. The bandanas, priced at $15 each, are on sale for $12 each through October 31 at www.berkeleypaths.org/swag-store.