Wayne Gardner

Wayne Scott Gardner
January 11, 1920 - April 19, 2014

Wayne Scott Gardner died peacefully at his home in Woodland, California on April 19, 2014. He was 94.
Wayne was born January 11, 1920, at the Gardner home two miles east of Clifton, Colorado. He was the youngest of six children of Dora Levi and Violetta Scott Gardner, who earlier been homesteaders in Whitewater. Wayne grew up helping farm apples, pears and peaches in his parent's orchard, attended Clifton schools and graduated from Grand Junction High School.
Staff Sergeant Gardner served three years in the Army Air Corps during World War II, including a tour of duty on Guadalcanal, retiring as an oxygen generator Instructor. Just before the war ended, he married his sweetheart, Leona Oberly, in their hometown of Clifton.
On the GI Bill, he earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in botany and plant pathology at Utah State Agricultural College, Logan. He was employed as a civilian researcher by the US Army in Utah and conducted environmental and crop research for US Steel Corporation in Utah and Pennsylvania. He and Leona welcomed four daughters along the way. Wayne returned to school at age 43 under a Regents Fellowship at University of California, Davis, where he earned a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology in 1967. His doctoral thesis project was a study of barley stripe mosaic virus, and he was honored for outstanding accomplishment in the field of electron microscopy at UC Davis.
He was hired as an associate professor at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota, where he focused on research and teaching using the electron microscope. Wayne was a devoted mentor to his graduate students and also served a USAID mission to Botswana. In Brookings, Wayne was active in Toastmasters and the Pitchblenders barbershop chorus. He and Leona grew a huge vegetable garden and painted in acrylics in their spare time.
When Wayne retired in 1985, he and Leona purchased a motor home and traveled all over the United States, including visits to Colorado and California family. They moved back to California in 1990 to be near their daughters. Wayne's joy in living set an example for everyone who knew him. He had many interests, wrote several memoirs about his early life and studied his family history back to the first English settlers of Nantucket Island.
Wayne was active in resident activities at Leisureville Mobile Home Park in Woodland, California for many years. He was honored on April 6 at the Founders' Day program and reception as the last surviving member of the Leisureville Community Association committee that engineered the 1995 purchase of the park to become a cooperative owned by the residents.
Wayne was predeceased by his parents and his brothers, J. Ivan Gardner and W.L. "Bill" Gardner and by his sisters, Ruth Rigg, Demis Griffith, and Laura Lampshire.
He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Leona Gardner of Woodland, and by their daughters, Susan Larock, Barbara Gardner, Janet Lee, and Kathrine Gardner. Wayne is also survived by four grandchildren; two great-grandchildren and seven nieces and nephews and their families.
Memorials may be directed to Hospice or a charity of the donor's choice.