WILSON, Richard Fairfield (Dick)

Arizona Daily Sun, Flagstaff, AZ Sunday, August 07, 2011 Richard Fairfield Wilson (80) passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday, August 2, 2011 in the company of five of his six children, Suzie Horst (Tucson, AZ), Winnie Hanseth (Flagstaff), Bob Currey-Wilson (Portland, OR), Amanda Wilson (Flagstaff) and Soonie McDavid (Flagstaff) and his grandson, Colton McDavid (Flagstaff). His humor, wit and caring nature touched many hearts but his impact on all the communities he touched will live on forever. Dick was a professor of geology (University of Arizona), who with his wife, Jean Hayman Wilson, spent a lifetime giving to others by providing educational scholarships, funding environmental causes, establishing nature preserves and parks, protecting animal rights and promoting community projects. Dick and his wife raised their family in Tucson, where, among many community projects, they established the Tohono Chul Park, a 35 acre desert conservation oasis, and purchased and donated the Muleshoe Ranch in southern Arizona to the Nature Conservancy to preserve it from development. During the academic summers, Dick worked as a geologist at the Museum of Northern Arizona, which was established by his uncle, Harold S. Colton. During the early 1970s, Dick was instrumental in rallying the local and Native American community in Flagstaff to help keep the western slopes of the San Francisco Peaks free from unsustainable development. He was also intimately involved in protecting the San Francisco Peaks during the initial expansion of the Snow Bowl Ski Resort due to water issues and Native American rights. This battle went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear it. Dick and Jean donated the documentation of this legal struggle to the Northern Arizona University Cline Library. During this time, he and his wife built Camp Colton just outside of Flagstaff as an adventure camp for city youths to experience nature firsthand. Camp Colton was subsequently donated to the Flagstaff Unified School District, which continues to provide 6th grade students with experiential environmental education by spending time at the Camp. Dick and his wife permanently moved to Flagstaff in 1990. While in Flagstaff, Dick and his wife donated Fern Mountain Ranch, a long-held family property on Hart Prairie Road just outside of Flagstaff, to the Nature Conservancy, allowing scientists to study the endangered Bebb Willow through the establishment of the Hart Prairie Preserve. Dick was one of the founding members of Heritage Square, which helped to revitalize down town Flagstaff by providing an open, public space. He was also instrumental in the restoration of the McMillan Homestead at the Colton Research Center at the Museum of Northern Arizona. Dick and Jean established The Plateauland Mobile Veterinary Clinic and the Second Chance Center for Animals (SCCA), which was created to provide low-cost veterinary care to the thousands of animals in rural areas of Northern Arizona. The SCCA has greatly expanded care for homeless animals by saving thousands of animals through low-cost veterinary clinic, hospital care, surgical procedures, animal shelter, education programs and adoption program. Dick is survived by his six children (including Mark Wilson), five grandchildren(Korie Hanseth, Kelly Hanseth, Colton McDavid, Casey Currey-Wilson and Benjamin Wilson-Olsen), his sons-in-law (Todd Horst, Evan Hanseth and Tom Olsen), his daughter-in-law (Ellen Currey-Wilson), numerous nieces and nephews and extended family. He left this world after completing an amazing river trip through the Grand Canyon with his family, taking on the mighty Colorado River with a front row seat through the infamous Lava Falls rapid! He will be sorely missed by all who loved and knew him. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Second Chance Center for Animals at secondchancecenter.org. This obituary was prepared by the Advertising Department (928) 556-2279.