RAYMOND VINCENT CORNING

Memorial Services for Raymond Vincent Corning, 69, will be held Saturday, Sept. 20, 2003, at 2 p.m. in the Mount Hope Chapel at Hudson's Funeral Home in Lander, Wyo. Mr. Corning died Sept. 13 after a 10-month battle with esophageal cancer. A second service will be held in Morland, Kan., at the Methodist Church the following Wednesday at 1p.m.

Mr. Corning was born, April 15, 1934, in Casper, Wyo., the son of Lester Charles and Hilda Elizabeth Goodrow Corning. He graduated from Haxtun High School in Haxtun, Colo., in 1952 and obtained both bachelor's (fisheries science) and master's (zoology) degrees at Colorado State University. He married Mary Ann Reichardt, June 20, 1964. Together they raised three children and recently celebrated their 39th anniversary.

During his professional career, Mr. Corning worked for Idaho Fish and Game, Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries, Bureau of Land Management in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage. After his retirement in 1994, he remained passionate about the protection of Wyoming's water resources as an active "interested person" for the Green Mountain, Atlantic City, Granite Mountain and Silver Creek Common Grazing allotments. He was an avid hunter. His other hobbies included photography and genealogy.

Mr. Corning was a dedicated family man survived by his mother, his wife and their three children: R. Vincent Corning Jr. and his wife Colleen Carswell Corning of Soquel, Calif.; Caroline Renee Corning Creager, her husband Robert Stuart Creager and their children Christopher, Robert and Michael; James Raymond of Berthoud, Colo.; and Muriel Elizabeth "Beth" Corning Wheeler, her husband Jim Wheeler, stepson Nathan, and their daughters Zoe Elizabeth and Aiko Anne of Geneva, Ill. In addition to his second family Raymond is survived by two sons from his first marriage: David Vincent Corning of Estes Park, Colo.; and Brett Allen Corning, his wife Kim Louise Renzelman Corning and daughters, Brittney Diane and Shelby Nicole of Arvada, Colo. Also surviving Mr. Corning are his brother, Gerald Lester Corning, his wife Susanne Elaine Sukovaty Corning of Alamosa, Colo.; and his sister Bonnie Jean Corning Harms and her husband Orville Lee Harms of Boulder Colo.; his mother-in-law, Muriel B. Reichardt of Denver; two brothers-in- law, and numerous nieces and nephews. Survivors would not be complete without his "Adopted Alaska Son" Thane Humphrey, his wife Joyce Lynn Ricketts Humphrey and daughter Brittany Rose who joined the family by choice.

Mr. Corning was preceded in death by his father Lester Charles Corning, his infant brother Charles Lester Corning, his son-in-law Alan Guthrie Maecher and two uncles, Carl Harold Goodrow Jr. (Sonny), and Raymond Lowell Goodrow.

The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, memorials be made in care of Hudson's Funeral Home at P.O. Box 680 Mount Hope Drive, Lander WY 82520. Please specify: Western Watersheds Project, whose mission is to protect and restore western watersheds and wildlife through education, public policy initiatives and litigation; WMC Foundation, Masterson Place, 1233 East 2nd, Casper, WY 82601, which provides inexpensive housing for out of town patients at Wyoming Medical Center.