Wayland A. Stephenson

Wayland was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the second child of Herman H. Stephenson and Edith Wayland Stephenson. He grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and graduated from Wichita East High School in 1936, and the University of Kansas in 1940. He completed medical school at the University of Kansas on June 9, 1942 and married Alice Ann Jones the very next day.

During World War II he served at the naval hospital in Long Beach, California. After the war he completed a residency in neurology and went on to practice at the Sansum Medical Clinic in Santa Barbara, California, as the first neurologist on staff. He practiced there until his retirement in 1985.

Wayland and Alice Ann raised four children and lived in Santa Barbara from 1956 until 2000, when they moved to Sisters to be near their two daughters.

Wayland loved to travel and explore. He loved hiking and family camping trips and later RV travel and Elderhostel trips.

In 1961, the family of six took a two-month camping trip around the United States in a station wagon, with a wooden box he built on the roof of the car. At night three kids slept on top of the car, one on the front seat and Mom and Dad in the back. The logistics are mind boggling... "are we there yet?"

Wayland was described as having "itchy feet." He must have inherited his love of travel from his mother, Edith, who traveled by train as a child to Yellowstone in 1910. In those days one departed the train in West Yellowstone and traveled into the park by horse and wagon to see Old Faithful and stay in the lodge there.

In 1927, Wayland's family traveled from Kansas to California and up the west coast to Vancouver Island in an open touring car. Wayland never saw a road on a map that he didn't want to explore. Alice Ann was patient enough to accompany him on the Alcan Highway to Alaska, continuing to stop north of the Arctic Circle.

They traveled to Great Slave Lake, to Churchill to see the polar bears, and many trips criss-crossing the lower 48 states. Last July they camped with their four children at La Pine State Park on the Deschutes River for a week.

Dad was 91 and Mom 89. A life lived well.

Wayland and Alice Ann were married for 67 memorable and happy years. Wayland is survived by his wife Alice Ann; his sister, Gina Lashley; his brother, Howard Stephenson; and four children, Ann (and Dennis) Hageman of Lake Oswego, Alan (and Gwyneth) Stephenson of Chico, California, Jim (and Sally) Stephenson of Carmichael, California, and Betsy (and Hank) Fegette of Sisters. They have 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.