C. Gayden Wren Photo courtesy of Abbey Studios, Inc.

The Wren family of Garden City has announced the death of attorney C. Gayden Wren, who died from cardiac amyloidosis on Aug. 6, 2008. Mr. Wren, a resident of Garden City for 37 years, was associated with the Garden City-based firm Cullen and Dykman LLP for more than 40 years.

Born in Detroit on Jan. 30, 1930 as the son of C. Gayden Wren and Nina Ellen Grizier, Mr. Wren was raised in Lansing, MI and attended Northwestern University, receiving his law degree from Northwestern University Law School in 1953. He subsequently served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1957, working in Italy and elsewhere in Europe as a 1st lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General's (J.A.G.) Corps.

In 1957, Mr. Wren returned to the United States and settled in New York, where in 1960 he married Mary Alice Rouse, a fellow Lansing native living in New York. They had four children and relocated to Garden City in 1971.

"The two things Mr. Wren loved most were his family and the law," said Mr. Wren's son, Gayden. "He spent his last day working on his will with his lawyers, and died with his family around him. It was a sad but fitting end to what he himself had said repeatedly in recent weeks was a wonderful and rewarding life."

Mr. Wren is survived by his wife and their four children, C. Gayden Wren III of Garden City and Steinway, Kendall C. Wren of Hoboken, NJ, Carrie Prystalski of La Grange, IL and Lauris P. Wren of Kew Gardens, as well as by five grandchildren, Lenny, Ben, Mary and Katie Prystalski of La Grange and Max Mills-Wren of Kew Gardens.

A private burial with military honors took place Aug. 11; a public memorial ceremony will be held in the fall. Several of Mr. Wren's relatives suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and the family has requested that donations be made in Mr. Wren's name to the Alzheimer's Association.