By Mike Jording

Lucille Dumbrill is among those Wyoming women who quietly left their imprint in multiple circles. Lucille’s life as a servant to others began with her family, who she dearly loved and esteemed. She counted it a privilege to have a dedicated and honorable husband, Richard (Dick) Dumbrill, who traveled all the same roads that she did in her life’s work. She and Dick were inseparable, even after his early-onset dementia. Despite caring for Dick at home for many years, Lucille continued to enrich her own life and the lives of others by serving in many capacities.

She grew up in Laramie following in the footsteps of her father, Dr. Floyd Clarke, who was a long-standing professor at the University of Wyoming, head of the Zoology Department, and associate dean of the University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences. Those ties strongly drew Lucille to serve the University of Wyoming in multiple capacities. Among her most cherished roles were the American Heritage Center Advisory Board and the College of Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors. Lucille tirelessly advocated for the University of Wyoming and was honored with the UW Alumni Association Medallion Service Award in 2001. 

Many of Lucille’s interests placed her in leading roles to understand, preserve, and highlight Wyoming history. She and Dick served the Weston County Historical Society (WCHS) and worked with a strong peer group to build it into one of the best in Wyoming. Lucille was proud of the county’s heritage and enjoyed showcasing it to the Wyoming State Historical Society (WSHS) during its annual treks there. She served WCHS in many capacities, from awards chairperson to event planner to president, and had a gift for drawing others into leadership alongside her. Her family felt those same influences and would not have disputed it, often filling important roles (as presenters or trumpet players) at Lucille’s request.

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Lucille’s history-related roles extended to Newcastle’s Anna Miller Museum, where she chaired the board for multiple years. During her years on the board, the museum operated as part of the county society, and she led the effort to establish the Weston County Museum District in 1996. She had a clear vision of how important institutions like the Anna Miller Museum could be better served longterm with a county district designation. Her dedication to the museum and the museum district never waned.

One of Lucille’s passions was WSHS, where she and Dick served in leadership roles for decades. The Society benefitted in many ways from the vision the Dumbrills provided. Their efforts toward event planning, such as treks and annual meetings, made WSHS a delightful organization that tied nearly every county historical society in Wyoming into a family of friends and colleagues. All the events, including quarterly board meetings, were much anticipated. People across the state, like Lucille and Dick, gathered and became close friends and historical society members. Lucille never lost her passion for the Society’s founding mission, and it grieved her deeply that the organization she had loved and served moved so far from what it was created to be.

Lucille’s roles with WSHS led her down a natural pathway to leadership in the Wyoming Historical Foundation, which was a fundraising arm for the Society. Lucille and Dick occupied leadership roles in the Foundation, and arguably their most significant contribution to both the Society and the Foundation was the establishment of the Schwiering Project. The Dumbrills owned a landscape by Wyoming artist Conrad Schwiering, signed by the state’s five living governors, and prints of it were sold to raise endowment funds for Wyoming History Day and the Society's Maurine Carley Historic Preservation Award. These efforts provided the projects with more than $5,000 a year for 10 to 15 years. Lucille’s role as treasurer of WHF also placed her in leadership roles for other initiatives, such as the establishment of the Society’s and Foundation’s endowment housed at the Wyoming Community Foundation around 2010.  

Perhaps the least known of her roles, but one she felt deeply privileged to hold, was the preservation of historic buildings and sites. She was an organizer and an original member of the Weston County Historic Preservation Board, a county-supported board, whose mission was described in its bylaws as: “the protection, enhancement and perpetuation of cultural resources which represent and reflect Weston County’s heritage.” To her dying day, she was a member of the board (president for much of that time) and passionate about its role in preserving Weston County history. Through her efforts, she focused attention on several of the county’s treasures, including the Weston County Fairgrounds, The Flying V Cambria Casino, Mallo Camp, Craig Chevrolet, and the Dogie Theatre. Lucille also had defeats in historic preservation (Upton Elementary School and Newcastle’s Old Mill Inn), and those she often lamented.

Lucille’s efforts never stopped, and she left a list of unfinished business. However, her most personal and satisfying accomplishment was the publication of her book, Grace McDonald Phillips: Legal Pioneer, in 2023. Lucille was proud to document the history of Wyoming’s first female practicing attorney, and it was a project that took years of research and preparation.

Finally, Lucille’s efforts toward historic preservation led her to become friends with others passionate about the same goals. For Lucille’s efforts, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to serve on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Through her preservation work, Lucille formed lasting friendships with others who shared her goals, among them Mary Humstone, who worked for many years with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and taught historic preservation at the University of Wyoming. Friendships like these were, for Lucille, among the truest rewards of a life given to service.

Mary Humstone also wrote a remembrance of Lucille Dumbrill, which appears here.