David Copley Burial Is Set for Monday at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego

David Casey Copley, the last in a line of philanthrophic newspaper owners in his storied La Jolla family, will be buried Monday beside his mother, Helen, in a private ceremony, according to an obituary in U-T San Diego.

Helen Copley is buried at El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley, according to online records. Her husband, James, is buried at Spring Lake Cemetery in Aurora, IL.

Other buried at El Camino include Ray and Joan Kroc, the former Padres owner and McDonald’s magnate and his major-donor wife; polio vaccine inventor Jonas Salk; actor Milburn Stone; NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle; and KPBS journalist Gloria Penner.

Coopley’s 1,230-word paid obituary, published Sunday, said an “invitation-only celebration of life [will] be held at The Salk Institute later this month.”

On Saturday, U-T San Diego columnist Diane Bell said the private memorial would be Dec. 16.

“Two of David Copley’s favorite charities—the San Diego Humane Society and the San Diego Public Library Foundation—have been designated for contributions in lieu of flowers,” Bell wrote.

Copley, 60, died Nov. 20 of a heart attack while driving his Aston Martin in La Jolla, not far from his Foxhill estate.

“His final weekend was filled with the activities he cared about most: an event (for out-going San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders) outside the iconic, new downtown Central Library; the opening of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot at the La Jolla Playhouse and an executive committee meeting at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, which he chaired as board president,” the obituary said.

“These were the happiest of days for the 60-year-old former newspaper heir. They were filled with time for his true passions in life—the symphony, the opera, the theater, contemporary art, the decorative arts, movies, Hollywood, classic cars, sailing and entertaining his friends on his yacht Happy Days II at home at Foxhole and at Foxhill. Summers moored in Monaco. New Year's in St. Barts.”