Terry Joe Wehrman
Terry Joe Wehrman was born to Erma and Joe Wehrman in 1940 in Marshalltown, Iowa. He died of complications from Parkinson’s Disease on August 31 in Lander with his wife and several friends by his side.
Terry graduated from Marshalltown High School in 1958 and received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Iowa State University in 1963. He then went through officer training for the U.S. Air Force and served from 1963 to 1968 as a navigator for cargo transports. He circumnavigated the globe many times on embassy runs. He told great stories about exploring exotic places. His least favorite part of the job was carrying wounded American soldiers from Vietnam.
On Nov. 11, 1966, in Charleston, S.C., he married Carol Steinmetz, who was serving with the Women’s Air Corps. In 1968, they moved back to Marshalltown where they had two children, Sheri and Scott. Terry worked in his father’s business, Wehrman Optical, as an optician until his wanderlust took him to Atlantic City, WY, in 1971. He and his wife purchased the Atlantic City Mercantile, a historic saloon. They divorced, and Carol moved the children to California, but Terry continued to bring them to Atlantic City every summer.
In an article in the November 1976 issue of National Geographic about the Outlaw Trail, Robert Redford described Terry as “shy, gentle, and openhearted.” Redford said Terry “… acts as city councilman, mailman, cook, father confessor, and keeper of goodwill in Atlantic City.” In 1977, he sold the Merc and designed a house on the old Dexter Gold Mill foundation. For the next two years, he built the house. For several years he played stand-up bass and banjo for the Buffalo Chips, a Polish bluegrass band based in Atlantic City.
In December 1984, the National Park Service hired him as a heavy equipment operator, and he and his wife, Marjane Ambler, moved to Yellowstone National Park where they lived year around at Lake Village for nine years. In 1993, he transferred to Mesa Verde National Park. He retired in 1995.
Terry was preceded in death by his parents, his ex-wife Carol Wehrman, and his sister Mary Ellen McLeod. He is survived by his wife Marjane Ambler, his daughter Sheri Daley and her husband Christopher, his son Scott and grandchildren Alexa Wehrman and Sterling Wehrman, his nephew Shan McLeod and wife Betsy and their children, his niece Michelle Lieuallen and her daughter, many of his cousins, and his many friends. A private farewell party is planned.
Donations can be made in Terry’s name to either the
Lander Senior Center (which hosts the Parkinson’s exercise group)
205 South 10th St.
Lander, Wyoming 82520
OR
Parkinson’s of the Rockies,1325 S. Colorado Blvd., Ste. 204B
Denver, CO 80222
Please sign on the on-line family book at www.hudsonsfh.com
Hudson’s Funeral Home and On-Site Crematory, 680 Mount Hope Drive, Lander, WY 82520