Anne Hotchkiss Wheeler

After a long ordeal with lymphoma, Anne passed away the morning of November 30. An admirer of birds and the mountains, she loved her walks with those important to her around Crown Hill Lake and Clear Creek and was happy to share her knowledge of her flying friends. With Len Wheeler, she raised 4 children (Andy, Ron, Laura, and Mindy). These children blessed her with loving spouses and 6 grandkids, all of whom indulged her in the love of trains and local history, like the sod house. A strong group of women in her life provided companionship and support. She also had a cherished group of windsurfing friends, including companion Ken Lister, who toured places ranging from Nebraska to Mexico.

Anne loved to travel! and has been to Japan, China, New Zealand, all over Europe (including Greece, Yugoslavia, Turkey) ..and of course she spent a year in Graz Austria in 1956-7 where she became fluent in German and met her first love, Horst, while there. They remained friends the rest of her life.

Anne was very interested in World Peace (how many of you stood on that corner by the side of the highway with her in the blistering cold waving a sign). She welcomed NUMEROUS foreign students  (mostly from CO School of Mines) into her busy life with 4 children at home to help them get acquainted with American life and English.

Sister Julie called Anne one day and asked if she wanted to go somewhere. Without hesitation she said “sure, let’s go!”. She didn’t need to know any details like  “WHERE”. So on they went to New Zealand. And later to Austria and visited a nephew and his family in Vienna. And while there, they did a lot of research on Julie's husband's family and she brazenly talked her way into the Jewish Historical Museum there, past the armed guards, because her nerve and being able to speak German. And then met Julie's daughter and her family who were spending a skiing vacation Bad Hofgastein. They also went on an Elderhostel (now Road Scholar) trip to the Upper Peninsula (MI) to revisit Houghton. The trip got cancelled by the Elderhostel people because they were the only two to sign up, but they went anyway, stopping in Madison Wi to see friends and family, and Milwaukee where they met their cousin Alice (Denton Fehr) for the first and only time, and other distant members of the family.

A train afficianado from childhood - and her fascination and love of trains stayed with her for her entire life. She preferred steam engines - the older the better. She and her sister Julie as very young kids (maybe 5 and 6) went down the hill from Grandma Denton’s house in Houghton to visit the engineers and trainmen in the round house at the bottom of the hill, much to the consternation of the men there.  Her ashes are buried under her headstone in the Chadbourne Plot in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Houghton, Michigan.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to Planned Parenthood, PBS, or Doctors Without Borders.