Charles Richard Wyttenbach, 85, of Lawrence, Kansas, died at home June 11, 2018. He is survived by his wife, Ellen Garnett Wyttenbach; his children, Robert Alan Wyttenbach, Ann Garnett Wyttenbach, and Rebecca Jean Wilson; and his seven grandchildren.
Born in South Bend, Indiana, Charles attended public schools in Elmira, New York, and went to Indiana University. After graduating in 1954, he went to Johns Hopkins University and earned his PhD in 1958. After several years in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Chicago, he moved to the University of Kansas in 1966. He remained there as a professor of embryology until his retirement in 1998.
Starting in 1952, he spent summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, first as a lab assistant and then as an independent researcher. He and his wife, Ellen, met in a class at Indiana University, became fast friends in Woods Hole, and married in 1959. They continued to spend the summers in Woods Hole after retirement, enjoying the scientific community, natural beauty, and extensive bike trails.
Charles had interests ranging from science to history and loved classical music. Retirement allowed him to pursue his hobby of wildlife photography worldwide, in the Arctic, Antarctic, Africa, and India, and isolated islands such as the Pribilofs in the Bering Sea, St Kilda in the North Atlantic, and the Galapagos.
Memorial services will be private. However, donations in his name may be sent to the University of Kansas Field Station and Ecological Reserves (via the KU Endowment Association) or the Woods Hole Public Library (581 Woods Hole Rd, Woods Hole, MA 02543) or may be sent in care of the Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home (PO Box 1260, Lawrence, KS 66044).
