Obit: Anne Wyman

By The Home News (contact)

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | 6:21 p.m.

Anne Wyman

Anne Fenton Wyman, 83, of Boulder City passed away June 23 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

She was born March 20, 1926, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Arthur and Edna Fenton.

Wyman was born and raised in Cleveland, where she graduated from East High School and attended Case Western University. She was able to live at home and work her way to become the first woman to graduate in geology at that university.

While at Case Western University, she met her future husband, Richard Wyman. Together they went to University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for their master’s degrees in geology. Their first child was born there but died in infancy. Together they went to Peru, where he worked for a large mining company and she taught school for the English-speaking children. After returning to the U.S., their son William was born and raised in Arizona, Utah and Nevada before graduating in Boulder City.

Anne Wyman looked for work as a teacher and was hired by the new Nevada Southern University (now UNLV) to teach geology and geography.

She was the first woman faculty member in the College of Sciences.

In her capacity as a college faculty member, she established the first geology degree curriculum, and took the program through the regents. She became the first member of the Geology Department, which now has grown to 14 or more professors with degrees offered through masters and doctorates. Anne taught at UNLV for 28 years.

Anne has traveled the world in her career and visited over 80 countries. She was fluent in French and Spanish, as well as English.

Wyman is survived by her husband of 61 years, Richard V. Wyman of Boulder City; sister Louise Fenton Hoff of Hadley, Pa.; Son William F. Wyman (Christina) of Yelm, Wash.; Grandsons Daniel and Joseph Wyman, both of Yelm, Wash.; And four nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.M. July 2 at Grace Community Church in Boulder City. The family wishes that donations be made to the scholarship in her honor at the UNLV Foundation: the Anne Wyman Scholarship in Geology, UNLV Foundation, P.O. Box 451006, 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy., Las Vegas, NV 89154. The foundation may also be reached at 895-3641 or online at foundation.Unlv.Edu/give.

Boulder City Family Mortuary handled the arrangements.