The loss of a community supporter

With Lousie Wesswick’s passing last week, the county has lost one of its biggest proponents of the humanities.

Wesswick headed up the Wesswick Foundation, which provided funding to a number local events and causes, much of which supported speakers and performers at Western Wyoming Community College. The college’s speaking series was named for both Louise and her sister, Arlene Wesswick. The work she did through her foundation ultimately resulted in her receiving the Governor’s Arts Award in 2010.

More recently, the foundation donated books to students in Sweetwater County School District No. 2. Wesswick also used her foundation’s funds to purchase books for students in Rock Springs.

“We went to elementary schools in Rock Springs ... and it was so well received, I thought, ‘Oh this would be a nice thing to do,’” Wesswick said in an interview last December.

“I’ve been a teacher my whole life and so books have always been important and always will be, so when anything comes up that has to do with books, I’m in it,” Wesswick said.

The Mission at Castle Rock Rehabilitation Center, where she resided last, partnered with her foundation to provide school supplies to Truman Elementary in December, when the foundation delivered books to the students.

Outside of that support, Wesswick donated funding to the Sweetwater County Library Foundation, which will be used to renovate the children’s library at the Rock Springs C Street Library.

She also provided scholarships to nursing students working at the rehabilitation center after they helped her friend.