By Jason Sweeney

Liz Duveneck Dana has kept her sense of humor and her commitment to her family’s Hidden Villa wilderness preserve in Los Altos Hills. Dana joins daughter Dana Whiteford, right, during a 2003 event at Hidden Villa.

Liz Duveneck Dana, a member of one of the local area’s most celebrated families, turns 90 on April 3. Dana is a daughter of Frank and Josephine Duveneck, the founders of Hidden Villa.

Like her parents, Dana has made her mark on Los Altos Hills. She has been active in local politics and community issues and remains on Hidden Villa’s board of directors.

“They won’t let me off,” she joked. She visits Hidden Villa frequently and participates in activities with campers. She also hopes to get more involved in the camp’s environmental education program.

“The thing that I think is most important about it is as an educational institution,” she said, when describing Hidden Villa. “I hope that it continues on that line.”

The local area has seen many changes since Dana’s parents bought land in 1924 in the hills near Los Altos.

“Los Altos Hills wasn’t even formed when we moved here,” Dana said. “It was just county land.”

When asked about changes she’s witnessed, Dana said, “Oh, my gosh. The area that has changed the most as far as I’m concerned is Los Altos Hills. There wasn’t anything here except farmland when we moved here. Communities all around the Bay Area have expanded tremendously.

“When I was a kid, the area was pretty rural,” Dana explained. “There were apricot orchards and farms with chickens. It’s not like that anymore. I think that’s one of the reasons that Hidden Villa has a place - because it is a farm.”

Living in modern-day Los Altos Hills does have its dangers. Last year Dana was bitten by a baby rattlesnake while removing it from her garden.

“He bit me on the finger,” she said. “I wanted to take him to Hidden Villa to show the kids what a rattlesnake looked like, and doggone it, he turned around and bit me on the finger.” Unfazed, she got in her car and drove herself to the hospital.

She shrugged off the incident. “When we were kids there were always rattlesnakes around Hidden Villa. There were mountain lions, too. We never saw them, but we could hear them.”

Dana attributes her longevity and her good health to family genes. “My father lived to be 99,” she said. “And I’m skinny,” she added. She said she quit smoking years ago but still enjoys a drink now and then.

Dana described building houses with her husband as among her cherished accomplishments. “I was an architect, and he was a builder. We built a lot of residences in this area. That was fun.” She also designed structures at Hidden Villa.

Many of the movers and shakers in the local environmental movement were friends of hers, including Wallace Stegner, Mary Davey, Lois Crozier-Hogle and Ruth Spangenberg.

“I knew all the big wheels,” she said.

Dana has a son, a daughter and five grandchildren.

When describing how it feels to turn 90, Dana said, “It doesn’t feel any different than when I was 89.”