Anita Westwood, librarian at Denver Health Medical Center (then Denver General Hospital) for 16 years, died May 30, 2002 at her home in Florida after a long illness. She was 65. Anita and her husband, Ronald, lived in Denver from 1970 until retiring to Pinellas Park, FL, in 1990. Anita became active doing volunteer work in the reference library at the veterans hospital in St. Petersburg.

As CCML President in 1987, Anita encouraged members to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution. With Susan Brandes, she coordinated the joint DAHSLC/CCML Administrators’ Reception. That year also saw the arrival of DOCLINE to the Midcontinental Region and the retirement of two long-time CCML members: Ruth Gilbert, VA librarian since 1966, and Dorothy Sullivan, Saint Joseph Hospital library assistant since 1965.  As if Anita’s contributions as president were not enough, from 1988 to 1990, she was co-editor of the Council Quotes with Sharry Diquinzio. And that was before word processing!

Anita was proud of CCML, and was an enthusiastic promoter of the organization. Joyce Condon, Saint Joseph Hospital Reference Librarian, recalled that it was Anita who first told her about CCML when Joyce was considering a career change. >Anita was a kind and gracious person as well, and also had a great sense of humor, which made her a delightful person to have on any committee. CCML members who knew Anita will remember her as a cheerful person who would always lend a hand. She helped out Fred Dudden when he started the library at the short-lived Davis Institute for the Care and Study of the Aged on the DGH campus. She could always be counted on to give advice and was well respected at Denver General.

As quoted from the Rocky Mountain News, June 8, 2002: "Mrs. Westwood was an avid genealogist and an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution - a bit of irony that delighted her and her English-born husband. She traced her Revolutionary heritage back to Virginia settler Jacob Spitler, who later became one of the earliest settlers of Ohio. Mrs. Westwood served four years as president of the Colorado Chapter of the DAR. Born in Toledo, Ohio, Mrs. Westwood received a master's degree in library science at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

"Mrs. Westwood was an avid cook, specializing in desserts and pastries. She also enjoyed crocheting and needlework. But her greatest passion was animals, especially wolves. "She enjoyed animals all her life,'' her husband said. "In our time, we had four dogs. And she really had a great love for wild animals. She always said she'd like to have lived in Alaska or in the Old West, and I think this was where the thing with the wolves came in. That, and the fact that they're the ancestors of the dog, and she really loved dogs.''

"The Westwoods enjoyed traveling, but when she became ill last year, her cardiologist warned her not to take a long-planned trip to England with her husband. "She insisted that I go, since we already had the tickets,'' Ronald Westwood recalled. "So I was there for three weeks, and her sister came and stayed with her during that time. She later told me how very pleased she was that she'd had that special time together with her sister.''"

Because of Anita's love for wolves, family members have requested that memorial donations be made to The Toledo Zoo to support its gray wolf program and exhibit, c / o Regina Hyldahl, P.O. Box 140130, Toledo, OH 43614.