Gloria N. Cuadra

She was born to Emil and Aurelia Adams in San Francisco. Gloria’s parents doted on their only child and provided her with a very happy childhood, especially their summer visits to Neptune Beach. A primary school teacher once visited her home to see what kind of environment produced her best student.

In high school, Gloria was a straight-A student and the valedictorian. She was a frequent performer, playing the piano, acting in plays, emceeing shows, and being selected to read a tribute poem when Franklin Roosevelt died.

In the fall of 1946 at the University of California, Berkeley, a professor in Gloria’s Public Speaking class challenged her answer to a question. A classmate named Carlos Cuadra rescued her by giving a different interpretation to her words. That’s how she met her husband. They were married on May 3, 1947, only 13 days after Gloria’s 19th birthday, and were together for 72 years, until her passing. Carlos passed away 28 months later, in August 2022.

Gloria earned her B.A. in Psychology, with Highest Honors, in 1950. She and Carlos were both elected to Phi Beta Kappa in their junior years. This was so unusual that famous columnist Herb Caen mentioned it in the San Francisco Chronicle. Gloria later studied education and art at UCLA.

Gloria and Carlos lived in the Bay Area, then moved for Carlos’ jobs to Illinois, Los Angeles, New Jersey, and finally back to Los Angeles, settling there for good in 1960.

Gloria was Secretary/Treasurer of Cuadra Associates Inc., the family computer business, for 34 years, managing accounting, payroll, and taxes with precision and efficiency. Because of her genuine interest and care for everyone she met, the staff felt like she had adopted them. She was both office manager and den mother.

Nobody could make friends more easily than Gloria. She was longtime pals with the other moms on the block, kept in touch with childhood friends and with foreigners who she met on vacation trips, became friends with the people who made deliveries, the plumber, electrician, and other workers, and the caregivers who helped her in her final months.

Her children and grandchildren benefited from her loving care and support, always knowing that she was there to help them, teach them, and share their lives. She had a lovely singing voice, and the family was delighted when she sang songs that her father had sung to her as a child, often with piano accompaniment by Carlos.

Gloria taught herself to use a Braille typewriter, and typed books for blind people as a volunteer for the Braille Institute. She also volunteered for Mark Twain Junior High School, a children’s camp, and the Los Angeles Funeral Society, for which she made a public service announcement on live TV. As a volunteer for the Westside Fair Housing Council, she inquired about rentals so that the Council could compare the landlord’s response with an inquiry from a minority applicant.

When she wasn’t working, being a hostess, cooking, or managing the household, she enjoyed reading, learned to ski, and attended the annual Sacramento Jazz Jubilee with Carlos for 42 consecutive years. From her art studies, she produced watercolors, paper mosaics, drawings with pastels, tempera, and ink, experiments with patterns, textures, and optional illusions, and even dyed cloth and woven works. Over the years, the family enjoyed her fanciful doodling.

Gloria had a wonderful sense of humor, loved cats and cat-themed T-shirts, and never missed the daily newspaper comics. She was a fan of Calvin & Hobbes, The Far Side, Drabble, Get Fuzzy, and Zits, as well as Wallace & Gromit, Kliban cats, Felix the Cat, Monty Python, and many other sources of laughter. Starting in 1952, she and her family made humorous homemade holiday cards and mailed them annually to friends and family. The tradition lasted for 70 years.

Gloria and Carlos are survived by their children Susan Nielsen, Neil (Ruth) Cuadra, and Dean Cuadra, and their grandchildren Craig Nielsen (Evie Sandoval), Jimmy Cuadra (Leah Scampoli), and Dan (Helen) Cuadra.

Their ashes were interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Rose Garden in Los Angeles. Their combined memorial service will be held there on Saturday November 5, 2022 at 11:00am.

Donations in memory of Gloria or Carlos may be made to the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation (aamds.org) or to the American Civil Liberties Union (aclu.org).

The obituary for Carlos A. Cuadra can be found at https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/los-angeles-ca/carlos-cuadra-10916384