02/23/2026
Ann Trowbridge Tollefson, a nationally-recognized leader in foreign language instruction and distance learning, passed away at her home in Story, Wyoming on February 22, 2026. Also an award winning artist, philanthropist and community leader, Ann was a life-long resident of Wyoming who deeply loved her home state and its children.
Ann Lynn Trowbridge was born on January 31, 1942 – a few weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Her father, who worked at the time for United Airlines in Cheyenne, joined the U.S. Navy soon after. Throughout the duration of World War II he served in the Naval Air Transport Service in San Diego, while her mother worked in a nearby defense plant. Her mother later moved to Salt Lake City, Utah to be close to her family in the last year of the war. After the war ended, the family returned to Cheyenne, where her parents started the Trowbridge Company, which bought and sold oil and gas leases across the West.
Ann grew up in Cheyenne and graduated from Cheyenne High School in 1960, a member of the last class before the school was divided into Cheyenne Central and the newly created Cheyenne East High School. She then attended the University of Wyoming, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in French in 1963, and a Master of Arts degree in French Literature in 1969. Upon graduation she briefly taught French in Torrington and Laramie, Wyoming before moving to Casper, where she taught French at Natrona County High School from 1966 to 1991. During her career she won multiple teaching awards including Wyoming Teacher of the Year in 1983.
Ann became a statewide, regional and national leader in foreign language instruction, serving as president of the Wyoming Foreign Language Teachers Association and the Pacific Northwest Council for Foreign Languages. Later in her career, she served as Foreign Language Coordinator, an administrator for the Natrona County School District and the world language content specialist for the Wyoming Department of Education.
A prolific and successful grant writer, Ann secured both state and federal funding for numerous projects that she directed, including the Wyoming Elementary Foreign Language Pilot Program, the Wyoming Middle School Articulation Project, the National Online Early Language Learning Assessment, the U.S. Department of Education Critical Language Project and WyFLES: A National Model for Delivery of Elementary School Foreign Language Programs. Under her leadership, Wyoming partnered with both Georgia and South Carolina to create Spanish programs for elementary school students.
She was project director of five area-studies projects funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, working with national and international scholars to engage K-12 teachers in a year-long study of five regions of the world: Africa, the Far East, India, the Middle East, and Russia. She was also project director of four FLAP grants funded by the US Department of Education, and a Fulbright-Hayes Group Project Abroad to West Africa.
Upon retirement from the Natrona County School District, Ann became a private consultant sought out by school districts across the nation for her expertise in the development, implementation, and evaluation of world-language programs.
She served as the outside evaluator of the Utah and Delaware Dual Language Immersion Programs and the 17-state Chinese Flagship consortium. She also worked from its inception with the STARTALK Program funded by the US Department of Defense and led by the National Foreign Language Center. In that capacity she served as a site-team leader and advisor, where she visited and evaluated student and teacher-preparation programs at K-12 schools, colleges and universities across the country.
Ann was elected President of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) in 1997 and was awarded the ACTFL Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in K-12 Foreign Language Education in 2002. She was also named State Foreign Language Supervisor of the Year in 2007 by Pearson/Prentice Hall and the National Council of State Supervisors For Languages (NCSSFL). In addition, she was a long-time member of the Wyoming Council for the Humanities, receiving the 1989 Wyoming Humanities Award.
Ann was a frequent presenter at state, regional and national conferences, and was instrumental in training teachers in the national foreign language standards and eating the Wyoming foreign language standards.
As one of her colleagues once wrote, “Ann has single-handedly led our little state into the national limelight, convinced our legislators that foreign language is critical for Wyoming students, and developed future leaders in our profession.”
In her retirement, Ann decided to pursue her life-long interest in art. In typical fashion, she worked tirelessly to educate herself and improve her technique and skills, becoming an accomplished and award-winning watercolor artist with pieces acquired by private collections around the country. Her love of watercolor was nurtured early on by the Casper Artists’ Guild. She eventually became a member of the Guild’s Board and was instrumental in working with the City of Casper and private donors and endowments, enabling the Guild to acquire and renovate an abandoned building in the Yellowstone District. The result of her singular vision was Art321, the Guild’s new education and exhibit space.
She served on the Story Library Board, writing grants and raising money to fund its successful expansion in 2023. Ann was also devoted to her alma mater, the University of Wyoming. She served on the Board of Visitors for the College of Arts and Sciences and was named a 1994 Outstanding Alumnus. Ann was a life-long season ticket holder and passionate fan of Cowboy Football and all UW sports.
Ann was preceded in death by her parents, Gene Edward Trowbridge and Reva Park Trowbridge of Cheyenne, her brother Gene Edward Trowbridge, Jr. of Saratoga, and her daughter in law, Leslie Fisher Tollefson.
She is survived by her son Chris Tollefson (Anna Strankman) of Story, a former journalist and retired Federal employee who served as Chief of Public Affairs for both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management; his partner Anna Strankman, an art curator who has worked at the National Museum of the American Indian, the Seattle Art Museum and several other prominent museums across the West; her son Jeff Tollefson (Loana Staicu) of Brooklyn, NY, an award-winning environmental journalist, former senior correspondent for Nature Magazine and a current free-lance author and writer; daughter in law Ioana Staicu of Brooklyn, Senior Editor of Nature Immunology at Springer Nature and a former Postdoctoral Fellow at Hospital for Sick Children Toronto; her grandsons Isaac Cameron Tollefson, a student at Washington University in St. Louis, and Walker Grant Tollefson, a student at St. Mary’s College in Maryland; and her beloved standard poodles, Winston and Cricket.
Her marriages to Michael Hedlund and Dr. Tollefson ended in divorce.
Ann’s ashes will be scattered at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains beside her deceased dogs, cats and birds. The family requests in lieu of flowers that donations be made in her name to Art321 of Casper or the University of Wyoming College of Arts and Sciences.
To Honor Ann's incredible Life lived, there will be two events you may attend. The first Celebration of Life with a reception will be held Wednesday, March 4, 2026 at 12:00 (Noon) at the Story Women's Club (28 N Piney Rd, Story, WY 82842).
The second Celebration of Life and reception will be in Casper, WY at 11:00 AM, on Saturday, March 7, 2026, location is at the Art321 Casper Artists’ Guild (321 W Midwest Ave, Casper, WY 82601).
Online condolences may be written at https://www.kanefuneral.com/
Champion Kane Funeral Home has been entrusted with local arrangements.
