William H. Wroth

Will Wroth died on November 10, 2019, a year after being diagnosed with acute leukemia. Will was a native of Providence, Rhode Island, and attended Moses Brown School there. At Yale, he studied English, History, and Art History. He then went on to the University of Oregon where, in 1974, he earned Masters and Doctoral degrees in Political Science. From 1976 to 1983 he was curator of the Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. A son of the late Lawrence C. Wroth, Yale, LHD Hon., 1946, the eminent librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, Will inherited a love for antiquarian books and became a dealer in them. His company, Almagre Books, specialized in Western Americana. Will continued professional museum work as an independent curator to research collections and organizer of exhibitions for a number of institutions. He also taught as a visiting professor at Colorado College and lectured and published widely in his field of Hispanic and Native American Arts in the Southwest. Will is survived by his wife, Deborah K. Wroth of Santa Fe, New Mexico; by their three children, Celestina, Roy and Carmel; by his brothers Kinvin (Yale, B.A., 1954) and Tom (Yale, B.A., 1957) and by many beloved cousins, nieces and nephews.