Remembering a life that helped save Blue Hole

EDITOR'S NOTE: The memorial for Marilee Wood has been postponed to a later date that has yet to be decided.

Marilee Wood, a key figure in the creation of modern Wimberley, will be remembered at 2 p.m. this Saturday at the Wood/Grinstead Amphitheater of Blue Hole Regional Park. Everyone is welcome for the memorial event, which takes place in the park that Wood did so much to save and develop for Wimberley. Wood died Jan. 25, in Houston.

“Blue Hole Park,” Marilee was fond of saying, “was born under a lucky star.” That luck was heart- and handmade by a few dedicated city leaders, including Wood, with the vision, courage and determination to make the improbable into reality.

Today it is hard to imagine Wimberley as an unincorporated village or without Blue Hole Regional Park – a boon to local families, hikers, soccer players, bird watchers and of course swimmers, and the city’s premiere attraction for visitors.

Even harder to believe is that less than 20 years ago, the beautiful public space we now enjoy yearround was on the verge of becoming a development area, packed with homes, apartments and cars, all on the edge of Wimberley Square.

“There is no question what would have happened to Blue Hole,” said Steve Klepfer, Wimberley’s third mayor, “There was a contract on it to be a development. It was the real deal. In our last meeting with the developer, he said on those 130 acres he was going to build 350 houses and a lodge (on the ridge) above Blue Hole (swimming area).

That was a challenge that Marilee – who served three times on Wimberley City Council – was glad to take on, just a few years removed from being a key figure in getting the city incorporated in May, 2000.

“Marilee was in love with Wimberley for what it could be, an oasis of calm, peace and beauty in the middle of one of the fastest growing urban corridors in the country,” said her husband, Tevis Grinstead. “She saw a strong and progressive city government as the only way to maintain this. This was a great fit with her lifelong interest in public service.”

Wood already had long experience in getting things done. Her family rose from humble beginnings. Her dad, Lee May, “grew up in a dugout shack near Muleshoe” before a football scholarship got him to Rice, where he graduated and met his wife, Cornelia Elizabeth Kellogg. Later, Marilee found herself “strongly encouraged” by her alumni parents to attend Rice, said her son, Stephen Wood.

After graduating from Rice University with a Masters in English, she taught high school English, left work to raise a family, went back to work, this time for Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz, followed by more public and private work.

“She was the best person in the world to have on your side,” Grinstead said. “She never gave up and never quit. Once she accepted an issue as hers, she was wholly committed. Coming from a high school class of 24 to become a Rice Phi Beta Kappa, rising to a top leadership position with Houston’s newly formed MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority), becoming Vice President of a major Real estate developer – this prepared her for the fight to preserve Wimberley and the park.”

Wood and Grinstead began looking for a getaway place in the last 1980s. They found it in Wimberley. Their home was in Houston but “they were in Wimberley all the time,” said Stephen Wood. They fell in love with it, from day one.”

Before long they both retired and moved to Wimberley. Soon, Wood became involved in the fight to incorporate. She won election to city council twice, and later was appointed a third time, by Mayor Bob Flocke, though they were often on opposing sides of issues.

“I thought she was the best qualified,” explained Flocke. “It doesn’t matter which side you are on, but how qualified you are, how you think about it. I believe her attitude was, ‘Hey, sometimes you might be right, I might be wrong’.

“The main thing Marilee taught me about city government was that the process is what is important. How it’s done. Once we voted, we were always still friends.”

Another Wimberley mayor, Steve Thurber, said Wood’s drive for consensus “earned the respect of her fellow council members and constituents alike. She was a wonderful mentor to me and I will always remember her for being a calming influence with a sharp and quick sense of humor.”

Of all her Wimberley efforts, she likely considered Blue Hole Park the best.

“Marilee was involved in all the strategizing,” said Klepfer. “From the idea, to getting the deal done, to helping the (Peter and Mary Faye) Way Family make the decision they made (to buy the land and save it, at no profit, until citizens could raise the money for it), to having a public process for the Master Plan and being involved in the selection of Stephen Spears to oversee the construction, and then right into programming support,” he said.

“That was one of the things she was most proud of in her life,” Stephen Wood said. “She and my step-father and others saw the opportunity to do something really nice there. To preserve the creek, but also to acquire that other land and make it into a real community resource.”

Blue Hole’s more than 100,000 annual visitors indicate she did well.