Darlene Pickett

Off the Court

Wyoming alumni, as Darlene Pickett tells it on the shows. Each story was checked against its source.

• Matthew Shepardstudent remembered nationwide

  Matthew Shepard was a first-year political science major here, a student rep for the Wyoming Environmental Council. We lost him in 1998, at twenty-one. In 2018 his ashes were laid to rest at Washington National Cathedral. Laramie remembers him.

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• Florence F. Arenbergbotanist and educator

  Florence Arenberg took her master's here in 1939 and made a life as a botanist and an educator. Knowing what grows on the high plains, and teaching it. That's honest work.

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• James G. WattReagan's Interior secretary

  James Watt, two Wyoming degrees. As Interior secretary he was seen as hostile to environmentalism and had to apologize to the Beach Boys. In 1996 he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, withholding documents. Five years' probation. Yep, he's ours. Don't rub it in.

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• Samuel C. Phillipsdirector of the Apollo program

  Samuel Phillips, a Wyoming man, ran NASA's Apollo program from 1964 to 1969. You want something hauled a long way over rough country, you hire a Cowboy.

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• Carol Toméchief executive of UPS

  Carol Tomé, one of ours, became the CEO of UPS. Out here the nearest neighbor is twenty miles off, so yes, we take package delivery real serious.

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