Osage County, Oklahoma, Obituary: Dr. LYDIA LLOYD WYCKOFF Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joann Brazee Osage County News Service (OCNS) http://ocns.freeyellow.com/ Email: ocns@hotmail.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr. LYDIA LLOYD WYCKOFF OCNS - July 3, 2002 - Dr. Lydia Lloyd Wyckoff, 64, renowned anthropologist, professor, author and the former curator of native American and Non-Western Arts at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, died Tuesday, July 2, 2002, at her Xu'Be Ranch near the community of Pershing in Osage County, Oklahoma. She ended her courageous struggle with cancer surrounded by family and friends and the ranchland she loved more than any other place on earth. "This journey seems to have been a long and difficult one," Dr. Wyckoff recently wrote to colleagues and friends. "At first I was terribly shocked; how could this pickpocket sneak up behind me? But he did. Then I went, despite my religious belief, into a kind of panic. Not fear, but quite simply a passionate desire to approach death calmly and without pain. How can I best say the long goodbye? Well, I am slowly doing this now." Born in Virginia on November 16, 1937, Dr. Wyckoff soon moved with her family to England. Her father, the late Edward Lloyd, was an acclaimed economist and had served as professor of economics at Oklahoma State University and at the University of Iowa where he received his PhD. Her mother, the late Martha Hall Lloyd, was a native of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and came from a prominent Osage County ranching family. During World War II, Dr. Wyckoff and her older brother, Roger Hall Lloyd, were sent from London to live with relatives in Osage County. During this period, Dr. Wyckoff developed a deep and abiding love of the land. In 1955, Dr. Wyckoff graduated from Les Beaux Arts de Lausanne in Switzerland. In 1976, she earned a master's degree at Wesleyan University and in 1980, she received a master's degree from Yale University where she also earned her doctorate in anthropology in 1985. Dr. Wyckoff's career as a scholar and teacher took her to many locales. Among her professional positions are professorships at the University of Tulsa, Yale University, Fairfield University, Bard College, University of Miami and University of New Haven. She also served as a research associate at the Museum of the American Indian in New York and conducted extensive field research in Nicaragua and amongst the Zuni and Hopi tribes of the American Southwest. She was the curator of Native American and Non-Western Arts at the Philbrook Museum from 1991 to 2000 and also originated the Native American Outreach Program at Philbrook. The author of countless professional papers, Dr. Wyckoff also authored several award-winning books including, Designs and Factions, Politics, Religion and Ceramics on the Hopi Third Mesa, Visions and Voices: Native American Painting at the Philbrook Museum of Art; Woven Worlds: Basketry from the Clark Field Collection at the Philbrook Museum of Art, the 2002 winner of the Oklahoma Book Award for non-fiction. Earlier this year Dr. Wyckoff was named by the Trust for Public Land (TPL) as the first recipient of the John Dunkin Memorial Farm and Ranch Preservation Award in recognition of her conservation efforts. In 2000 Dr. Wyckoff and her brother donated an eight hundred acre easement on their twelve hundred acre ranch to the TPL, becoming Oklahoma's first landowners to utilize legislation that adopted national standards for conservation easements. Dr. Wyckoff was an avid horsewoman and was most recently associated with Harvard Foxhounds of Tulsa where she served as Field Master and worked tirelessly to promote the sport. Dr. Wyckoff is survived by her daughter, Barbara Wyckoff Baird and a son, Christopher Wyckoff. Other survivors include her brother, Roger Hall Lloyd, son-in-law Jim Baird, daughter-in-law, Suzanne Wyckoff and grandchildren Amina and Dylan Baird and Kathryn Lydia Wyckoff. Funeral services will be held Sunday, July 7, at 9:00 a.m., at Dr. Wyckoff's Xu'Be Ranch near Pershing, Oklahoma. Friends also are invited to gather at her home following the services. Inquiries may be made at the Johnson Funeral Home in Pawhuska (918/287-2297). In lieu of flowers, it was Dr. Wyckoff's request that donations be made in her name to The Trust For Public Land Oklahoma Office 403 South Cheyenne, Suite 300 Tulsa, OK 74103 or by contacting Robert Gregory at (918) 587-2190 Ext. 3.