- Alvin Wiederspahn
Alvin Laramie "Al" Wiederspahn (born
January 18 ,1949 ) is a prominentattorney in Cheyenne who served for ten years as a Democrat in theWyoming House of Representatives (1979-1985) and theWyoming State Senate (1985-1989). He is married toCynthia Lummis (born 1954), a former Republican state treasurer and also, like her husband, a former member of both houses of the Wyoming legislature. She too represented Cheyenne, both the statecapital and the seat of Laramie County, the most populous county in Wyoming. Lummis is the 2008 Republican nominee for Wyoming's lone seat in theUnited States House of Representatives . Wiederspahn was born in Cheyenne toJ. Arling Wiederspahn (1916-2007) and Edvina Wiederspahn (1921-2004). The senior Wiederspahn was originally fromGrand Island, Nebraska , but he moved to Cheyenne in 1936. Arling Wiederspahn, who owned and operated the Wiederspahn Chapel of the Chimesfuneral home from 1956-1987, was a pioneermortician in Cheyenne. He served as the elected Democraticcoroner of Laramie County from 1963-1979 and a member of theLaramie County Community College board of trustees from 1970-1985. Arling Wiederspahn served by appointment of DemocraticEdgar Herschler on the Wyoming Board ofEmbalming .Young Wiederspahn graduated with honors from the
University of Wyoming in Laramie, the seat of Albany County west of Cheyenne. He then procured hisJuris Doctor degree from theUniversity of Denver Law School in theColorado capital. Wiederspahn began courting the Republican Lummis while both served in the state House. They were both elected to the House in 1978 and married in 1983. Lummis was elected to the state Senate in 1982, when Wiederspahn won his third term in the House. She served in the Wyoming Senate for three terms through 1994, but Wiederspahn completed only one four-year term, having been defeated for reelection in 1988.Lummis was elected treasurer in 1998 and reelected without opposition in 2002. She was term-limited from seeking a third election as treasurer in 2006. In 2007, shortly after the death of her father-in-law, she filed as a Republican candidate for the vacancy in the
United States Senate created by the death ofincumbent Craig L. Thomas . However, DemocraticGovernor Dave Freudenthal , with whom Lummis had previously quarreled, chose then state SenatorJohn Barrasso to compete the first third of Thomas' Senate term. Through his Wiederspahn and Reese firm in Cheyenne, Wiederspahn specializes in public utility law, municipal finance, estate planning, real property, health care, securities, and corporate law. Lummis is also a lawyer, a graduate of the University of Wyoming Law School. Wiederspahn is a director of First NationalBank of Wyoming and was formerly on the board of the Rocky Mountain Bank. Wiederspahn is actively involved in historic preservation. He was the developer in the renovation of thePlains Hotel , a Cheyenne landmark that dates to 1911. The Cheyenne Historic Preservation Board has on occasion honored Wiederspahn for his work in the area. He is also a Wyoming advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Wiederspahn served on the advisory committee of Cheyenne's Vision 2020 project. He is a founder and former chairman of the Cheyenne Downtown Development Authority. He is active on the board of the Homeless Shelter and is an elder of theTrinity Lutheran Church in Cheyenne. Wiederspahn is also active in the field ofmental health and is president of the Laramie County Association for Retarded Citizens. He is a member of the board of theCheyenne Symphony . Wiederspahn has also served as a volunteer judge of the juvenile drug court for Cheyenne, which hears approximately twenty-five cases per week.Wiederspahn and Lummis also own
ranches in Wheatland and Lincoln County near Kemmerer in western Wyoming. The couple has one daughter, Annaliese Wiederspahn, a graduate ofHaverford College inHaverford, Pennsylvania .References
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:76LaSoV9qUgJ:theirwin.com/Developer.pdf+Alvin+Wiederspahn+of+cheyenne&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=40&gl=us
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2007/06/22/news/wyoming/97fa4abe13f99414872573020006d353.txt
J. Arling Wiederspahn
obituary , Cheyenne "Wyoming Tribune-Eagle ", April 14, 2007http://www.plancheyenne.org/Bridge%20Section%20Final%20Report.pdf
http://pview.findlaw.com/view/1052677_1?noconfirm=0
http://www.imagescheyenne.com/03/Cheyenne_Builds_on_Old_West_Heritage,_Moves_Into_21st_Century.php
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