Ann West Schvaneveldt drew her last breath on Sept. 5, 2021, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. She was born in Ogden, Utah, on June 20, 1940, and had lived in New Mexico for 44 years.
Ann was one of two children of John “Jack” William West and Helen Berglund West. She grew up in Provo and the family moved to Moab in 1956. In Moab, Ann was crowned Homecoming Queen for Grand County High School in her junior year and was Uranium Queen in 1957 for the annual Uranium Days celebration.
She attended business school in Salt Lake City and married Roger Schvaneveldt in 1959 in Moab. The couple lived in Salt Lake City, Eugene, Oregon; Madison, Wisconsin; Boulder, Colorado; and Stony Brook, New York, before settling in Las Cruces in 1977. Their daughter, Susan Schvaneveldt Hamm, was born in 1967 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Ann completed a bachelor’s degree in government and a master’s degree in public administration at New Mexico State University. She worked as an administrator for the American Red Cross and as the administrative assistant for the NMSU Department of Music. She organized NMSU choir concerts in Italy during a trip in 2001 accompanied by her daughter.
Ann was devoted to family, friends and good food, and she adored her daughter and her granddaughter, Taylor Lindsay Hamm. Thanksgiving was her favorite day of the year, despite all the effort involved in preparing a marvelous feast. She experienced adventurous jeep trips led by her father into the Canyonlands country and numerous skiing, camping and backpacking trips with family and friends. She also enjoyed travels to Canada, the Bahamas, the United Kingdom, Europe, Hawaii and Mexico as well as summer vacations in the Conejos River Canyon in Colorado.
She is survived by Roger (her spouse, divorced in 2000); her brother, James (Judy) West of Bountiful, Utah; her daughter, Susan (Bill) Hamm; and her granddaughter, Taylor. She will be dearly missed by her family and friends. A memorial will be held in the future, date and location to be announced.
