SunRay Kelley, Master Builder of the Counterculture, Dies at 71
The go-to guru for those seeking their dream yurt, spiritual retreat or treehouse, he brought forth his handmade structures like a wizard with a chain saw.
By Penelope Green
Published July 30, 2023
Updated July 31, 2023, 7:00 a.m. ETSunRay Kelley, the barefoot maverick builder of fantastical handmade castles, yurts, temples, spirit lodges, tree houses, pavilions and structures so fanciful that they defied conventional building typologies, died on July 16 in Sedro-Woolley, Wash. He was 71.
Bonnie Howard, Mr. Kelley’s longtime partner, said that he had been suffering from cancer but that the cause of his death, in a hospital, was a blood clot from a recent operation.
Mr. Kelley was a hero in the world of unarchitected, alternative and vernacular building — a building movement distinguished by its handmade ethos, sustainable features and natural materials, which flourished in the counterculture years of the late 1960s and early ’70s but flagged a bit during the Reagan era.
For the last few decades, however, it has enjoyed a steady, if slightly fringe, resurgence as the costs, both environmental and financial, of traditional housing continue to escalate; new generations of back-to-the-landers and anti-consumerists of all stripes now cleave to its tenets.
