On Thursday, August 1, 2019, we lost Ariel Wahl, a creative, fierce, caring animal protector who lived life on her own terms. She faced down more than her share of challenges, but never lost her optimism or deeply-held faith. Last fall, she knew her kidney cancer was terminal, yet fought to stay around as long as possible. When the time came, she was at peace. Her final words were said with a smile and a wave, “Tell everyone I said hello, and I’ll see them later.”
Karen Ariel Wahl, 71, was born April 14, 1948 in Sea Isle City, NJ and raised in Stamford, CT. She was the fourth child of six in an active family. Always ahead of her time, she excelled in athletics, especially softball (before Title IX), was self-taught in music and art. She devoted her career to adult education and her life to the care and rescue of animals, especially dogs. A born adventurer and rebel, Ariel bought a baby blue Harley-Davidson police-style motor scooter when she was sixteen. In those days, the dress code at Stamford High School didn’t allow girls to wear pants, so she wore jeans under her skirt, hid them in her locker, and drove the Harley to school and then to her part-time job at the Springdale Animal Hospital.
After twenty years in New England, and one semester at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, Ariel was done with cold weather. She relocated to Houston, TX to complete her education, worked in Arizona, and lived the past twenty-five years in southwest Missouri, home state of her maternal grandparents. Her life adventures took her to Trinidad, Galveston, and other warm places.
Ariel worked her way through college, achieving a B.A. in Communications from the University of Houston and M.A. in Education from the University of Texas at Austin. Her field was Workforce Training & Development, and she launched her career in adult education by leading UT into distance learning in the 1980’s, a precursor to online education. She held positions as Training Manager at Huck Manufacturing Co, and Programmer/Teleconference Producer at KUHF-TV Channel 8 PBS.
After the tornado in 2011 destroyed much of its Joplin campus, Ariel retired from Crowder College, where she was a Training Developer and Instructor. Until a month before her death, she worked as a Personal Care Assistant in and around Neosho, MO.
Ariel’s home, “Healing Acres,” in Rocky Comfort, MO was shared with rescue dogs, kitties and chickens. For seven years, Ariel was a frequent visitor at the Lacoba Homes Nursing facility in Monett, MO. She and her therapy dogs were a welcome, healing presence.
Despite her preference for a quiet country lifestyle and the company of animals, Ariel loved meeting new people and hearing their stories. She had her mother’s gifts of accepting others and being a good listener. With these talents, she interviewed seniors in Barry County, MO and contributed to a series of oral history books, “Lifetimes of Memories,” published and for sale by the Barry County Museum.
Ariel was predeceased by her parents, Margaret Dunham and Robert Arnold Wahl of Stamford; her dear friends Dave and Peggy Divers of Cassville, MO; family friends Eline and Paul Taylor of Westport, CT and later Houston, TX; several well-loved aunts and uncles; and of course, generations of her four-legged family of dogs, cats, goats, guinea pigs, ducks, chickens and a sweet donkey.
Ariel’s home, “Healing Acres,” in Rocky Comfort, MO was shared with rescue dogs, kitties and chickens. For seven years, Ariel was a frequent visitor at the Lacoba Homes Nursing facility in Monett, MO. She and her therapy dogs were a welcome, healing presence.
Despite her preference for a quiet country lifestyle and the company of animals, Ariel loved meeting new people and hearing their stories. She had her mother’s gifts of accepting others and being a good listener. With these talents, she interviewed seniors in Barry County, MO and contributed to a series of oral history books, “Lifetimes of Memories,” published and for sale by the Barry County Museum.
Ariel was predeceased by her parents, Margaret Dunham and Robert Arnold Wahl of Stamford; her dear friends Dave and Peggy Divers of Cassville, MO; family friends Eline and Paul Taylor of Westport, CT and later Houston, TX; several well-loved aunts and uncles; and of course, generations of her four-legged family of dogs, cats, goats, guinea pigs, ducks, chickens and a sweet donkey.
She is remembered and mourned by a large extended family and close circle of friends. Her siblings and their spouses: Rolly and Linda Wahl of Mill Valley CA; Christine and Mike Billone of Knoxville, TN and Naperville, IL; Roger and Joy Wahl of Martinez, GA; Robin and Kevin Withers of Springfield, MA; Candelin Wahl and George Thabault of Burlington, VT; ten nieces and nephews and their families; beloved aunts, Patricia D. Hunt of Kennett Square, PA; Dr. Rosemarie Wahl Tumlinson of San Antonio, TX; as well as her first cousins and their children in the extended Dunham and Wahl clans. She was especially grateful for the love and support of her cousins Steve Elkinton and his wife, Miyo Moriuchi of Philadelphia, PA; and Tim and Anne Hunt of McLean, VA. Ariel leaves behind her best friend, Cindy Martin, and her daughter Ashlee Dodson of Neosho, MO. Ariel loved Ashlee like a granddaughter, and they became a family, sheltering her with love and laughter during her year of illness.
Ariel’s family would like to express gratitude to her medical team, Dr. Srikant Nannapaneni, MD of CoxHealth's Hulston Cancer Center in Springfield, MO; her PCP Dr. Lisa Parker, MD and Melissa Hitchcock, FNP-C of Monett, MO; Dr. Curtis Cox at Freeman West Hospital in Joplin, MO; the extraordinary staff at Lacoba Nursing Home, who welcomed Ariel back, this time as a resident. They treated her with warm, loving care in her final weeks. We’re so grateful to Sasha Jones and Stacy Jones, volunteers for Unleashed Pet Rescue/Adoption, who found new homes for Ariel’s animals when she could no longer care for them.
The family is planning a brief committal service for Ariel at Rocky Comfort Cemetery at 11:00 am on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019, followed by a celebration of life and picnic lunch at McIndoe Park beside Shoal Creek in Joplin. Cremation arrangements are under the direction of Bennett-Wormington Funeral Home in Monett, MO. In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift in Ariel’s name to one of these worthy animal rescue organizations: Haven of the Ozarks; Unleashed Pet Rescue/Adoption. Cards and/or online condolences may be sent to the funeral home.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of the Bennett-Wormington Funeral Home in Monett, Missouri.
Ariel’s family would like to express gratitude to her medical team, Dr. Srikant Nannapaneni, MD of CoxHealth's Hulston Cancer Center in Springfield, MO; her PCP Dr. Lisa Parker, MD and Melissa Hitchcock, FNP-C of Monett, MO; Dr. Curtis Cox at Freeman West Hospital in Joplin, MO; the extraordinary staff at Lacoba Nursing Home, who welcomed Ariel back, this time as a resident. They treated her with warm, loving care in her final weeks. We’re so grateful to Sasha Jones and Stacy Jones, volunteers for Unleashed Pet Rescue/Adoption, who found new homes for Ariel’s animals when she could no longer care for them.
The family is planning a brief committal service for Ariel at Rocky Comfort Cemetery at 11:00 am on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019, followed by a celebration of life and picnic lunch at McIndoe Park beside Shoal Creek in Joplin. Cremation arrangements are under the direction of Bennett-Wormington Funeral Home in Monett, MO. In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift in Ariel’s name to one of these worthy animal rescue organizations: Haven of the Ozarks; Unleashed Pet Rescue/Adoption. Cards and/or online condolences may be sent to the funeral home.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of the Bennett-Wormington Funeral Home in Monett, Missouri.
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