Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Historical Society names new leader
FAYETTEVILLE — Lee Anne Kirby Wiederkehr doesn’t relish titles or set out to break “glass ceilings” of class or gender, but she has become only the seventh woman elected as president in the 71 years of the Washington County Historical Society.
It was her mantra of organization, having fun and hard work while volunteering that led to her selection as the new president. Elected by the membership of the historical society earlier this month, Wiederkehr is the 35th individual to lead the county historical group since its formation in Feb. 18, 1951.
She has set about on a bold agenda in hopes that with the number of covid infections waning, indoor and outdoor activities of nonprofit groups, such as the historical society, can resume.
Wiederkehr succeeds Jim Spillars, Farmington band director and a Civil War reenactor, as the society’s new president.
Diana McKee Strange was the last female to serve as historical society president. Currently, 16 of the 29 officers and board members of the historical society are women. Wiederkehr was born in Harrison and began her Fayetteville experience as a baby while her parents attended college.
She returned to Washington County to attend the University of Arkansas, earning a degree in Landscape Architecture. She is a graduate of Fort Smith Northside High School and attended a year at Hendrix College prior to enrolling at the University of Arkansas.
Her professional career began at the SWA Group, a landscape design firm in Dallas, Texas. She then moved to SWA’s Laguna Beach, Calif., office as a senior associate and later branched out on her own and founded Kirby & Company to plan and design retail, office and commercial developments, before deciding to join her primary client, The Irvine Company, as vice president of landscape architecture.
In 2008, Wiederkehr returned to the UA as an adjunct professor of landscape architecture and was promoted to the Garvan Chair in 2009. During this time, she participated in LEED Certification for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.
She met Mike Wiederkehr at their 35th high school reunion, and they were married in 2012. The couple returned to Fayetteville following Mike’s 2017 retirement in southern California.
Wiederkehr joined the historical society board in 2018 and was chair of the Garden & Grounds Committee and served on several other historical society committees.