Rye Kelley, a central figure in the development of downtown Palo Alto and its surrounding residential towns, died Saturday at age 88. An energetic and engaged man who wrote seven plays, published three books of poetry, and helped run one of the great political campaigns in Peninsula history, Mr. Kelley succumbed to cancer at his home in Woodside. Working with his older brother Bill, and father, Red, Mr. Kelley built the first office high-rise in Palo Alto among several low-rise buildings in the downtown core, as the city rose up in the 1950s through the 1980s. He also subdivided and either built or sold the lots for the communities of Lindenwood and Atherton Heights in Atherton; Ladera, near...
↧