Martha Marsh Chandler, 85; Philanthropist

Martha Marsh Chandler, former president of Otis Art Associates and a philanthropist involved especially with gardening, died Tuesday at her Arcadia home after a stroke. She was 85.

Mrs. Chandler was the widow of Harrison Gray Otis Chandler, a former director of Times Mirror Co., which publishes the Los Angeles Times, and former president of the newspaper’s sister company, Times Mirror Press, which published telephone books. Harrison Chandler died in 1985.

Active in the Pasadena Garden Club, Mrs. Chandler shared her husband’s interest in gardening on their four-acre Arcadia estate.

Interested in protecting native Hawaiian plants, the couple helped create the Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden in Kauai, Hawaii. After her husband’s death, Mrs. Chandler donated funds for the Harrison Chandler Educational Center at the Kauai complex, which will be dedicated in September.

Because of her contributions to gardening, Burkard Nurseries named a blue felicia daisy the Martha Chandler Daisy in her honor.

Mrs. Chandler was elected president of Otis Art Associates, the volunteer support group for Otis Art Institute, in 1961, and served two terms. Through the group’s efforts, the institute staged formidable gallery exhibits of work by such artists as Leonardo da Vinci. One such exhibit included what Mrs. Chandler described as a woman’s portrait “younger and prettier” than Da Vinci’s famous “Mona Lisa” and just as valuable.

Mrs. Chandler helped raise funds for scholarships for the Art Center College of Design. She was also active in the Women’s Auxiliary of the Hospital of the Good Samaritan, the Costume Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Pasadena Guild Children’s Hospital and the Historic Land Assn.

Known as a gracious hostess, Mrs. Chandler entertained such celebrities as England’s Prince Philip and Bob Hope and his wife, Dolores.

Before her marriage to Chandler in 1957, she had served as vice president of the Los Angeles Junior League and was a member of The Spinsters. She had been a Red Cross volunteer nurse’s aide during World War II.

Born and brought up in Los Angeles, Mrs. Chandler attended Marlborough School for Girls and Dobbs Ferry School in New York.

She is survived by a daughter, Judy, and three grandchildren, Scott, Eliza and John.

Memorial services will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at the Church of Our Savior in San Gabriel.

In lieu of flowers, the family has suggested that any memorial donations be made to the Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden or the Art Center College of Design.