Judythe Wilbur

Judythe Wilbur December 2, 1944 - May 3, 2006 Judythe Wilbur, a new media expert at The University of Texas at Austin and former publishing executive in Boston and New York, died Wednesday, May 3, at her home, eight months after being diagnosed with lung cancer. She was 61. Wilbur was on the UT-Austin staff for the past 15 years, She started as a systems analyst in desktop publishing and presentation support, and became the senior systems analyst responsible for managing the information and web design group as well as communications in the Division of Instructional Innovation (DIIA) and Assessment. Wilbur is credited as a principal force in shaping and developing the voice, branding and imaging of DIIA. At the annual Innovative Instructional Technology Awards Program last week, Dr. Judy Ashcroft, Associate Vice President and Director of Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment, said of Wilbur: "She coached and guided, edited and suggested, supported and encouraged--and she was tireless in going over the details... Her presence and influence are here--in excellent work and in the hearts of her colleagues. We miss her, but we will live out her lessons to us." A lover of books and learning, Wilbur devoted most of her career to editing and promoting books and later, using technology to educate and disseminate learning. She was born December 2, 1944, in Rutland, Vt. the eldest of eight children of Bernecia (Doty) and the late Roscoe Wilbur. She attended Rutland public schools and graduated from Rutland High School in 1962. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism with honors in 1966 from Syracuse University, where she worked on student publications. She also worked for a summer weekly on Cape Cod called Poor Howard's Wednesday Afternoon Post. At Syracuse, she met the love of her life, Steve Singer, a journalism graduate student, who would become an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning producer of television documentaries at ABC and CBS. After graduation, Wilbur became the director of promotion and publicity at Beacon Press, a post she held until she joined Singer in Dallas in 1977. During her year there she was a counselor at the Fairmont Center. In 1978, Singer and Wilbur moved to New York where he joined CBS and she started work in the college division at Harper and Row, now HarperCollins. As manager for academic promotion, she frequently represented the publisher at college and trade book shows around the country and developed databases for promoting Harper and Row books. William James Singer was born in 1984 in New York. In 1990, Singer and Wilbur moved to Austin, where for several years, she edited books for Harper Collins electronically. Quiet, unassuming, intellectual, competent, patient, funny, with a great laugh and love of life, Wilbur treated everyone as though their coming across her path was the best thing that had happened to her that day. All of her friends can speak to the many acts of kindness Wilbur performed each day. Wilbur was one of the key organizers of the annual Women's Weekend in Wimberley, lovingly known as The Mouton Hunt, a gathering of women writers. She was active in parent organizations at Highland Park Elementary School, and later at McCallum High School, from which Will graduated in 2003. She also was a fine cook, a gracious entertainer and a collector of Southwestern folk art. Wilbur is survived by her mother, who resides at The Maples in Rutland, VT; her husband, Steve Singer; their son, Will Singer, both of Austin; her sisters Jane Hakins of South Burlington, VT; Joan Patin of Breaux Bridge, LA; Jacalyn Furman of Castleton, VT; Rhonda Wilbur of Rutland, VT, and Rene Rochon of Annapolis, MD, and her brothers, Robert Wilbur and Ronald (Bill Wilbur of Rutland) and ten nieces and nephews. Wilbur will be buried in Vermont. Plans are underway for an Austin memorial celebration. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in her memory to the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region.