Joyce Fay Lockhart Wildenthal

Joyce Fay Lockhart Wildenthal, with the support of her children, has endowed this scholarship in honor of her mother, Lora Bell Kunze Lockhart (1909-1998).

Mrs. Lockhart, or “Lora Bell” as she was known to her friends, was a daughter of German and English immigrant farmer stock who grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. She moved with her husband, William Edgar Lockhart, Jr., M.D., to Alpine, Texas, where they lived for more than half a century. Dr. Lockhart was a family physician who also served as Mayor of Alpine and on the city council.

Lora Bell became a beloved mentor, role model, and “mother hen” for innumerable members of her extended family and other friends, in Alpine and beyond. She was a civic and intellectual leader in her community, a homemaker who raised four children and supported her husband throughout his busy medical career, worked for the local newspaper, played piano and violin, and engaged in extensive charitable work.

She always promoted the value of education to more fully appreciate and enjoy the wonders of life, to promote tolerance and celebration of diversity, to achieve success, and as an overall civilizing influence on society. She had almost completed her undergraduate work at the University of Minnesota when she married and moved to Texas, but was never able to formally complete her own degree. Through constant reading, conversation, and curiosity, she became a model of the self-educated, active, and informed citizen. She opened her home to many visiting researchers and students studying biology and wildlife of the Davis Mountains and Big Bend region, including many students and faculty members at Sul Ross State University.

She would have been delighted and proud to lend her name to this scholarship supporting the scientific studies of future generations of students.