Obituary of Wendy Adler

Wendy Adler, aged 72, of Felton, California, passed away in her home November 4, 2022, from complications of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

Wendy was born on July 18, 1950, in Cleveland, Ohio. She graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 1968 and attended Denison University (Granville, OH) and Yale University before earning her BA in Theater Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1975. Theater was Wendy’s passion from an early age. She participated in countless school and community productions in the Cleveland area in her younger years. As an adult, she directed plays and worked in supportive administrative roles for several theater companies, including the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and the Shakespeare Santa Cruz program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Before retirement, Wendy worked in accounting for the non-profit Health Improvement Partnership of Santa Cruz.

She loved travel adventures – most recently, she enjoyed trips to Greenland, Africa, Scotland, Greece, and Switzerland. She avidly researched family genealogy and was committed to maintaining family connections. She loved her dogs, roller coasters, manatees, her childhood camp, Draeger’s hot fudge sauce, and corned beef sandwiches from Jack’s Delicatessen, which she visited whenever she came home to Cleveland. And she loved words, the more unusual the better. Her inquisitive mind led her to take deep drives on the internet to find out more about all sorts of things and places that sparked her curiosity.

Resolutely independent to the end, she left us as she lived – on her own terms, with plans for the future. Her indomitable spirit will be missed. Wendy was predeceased by her mother, Deborah Burton Adler, in 2017, and her father, Wallace Adler, in 2021. She is survived by her sisters, June Adler Vail, of Brunswick, Maine and Christine Adler Phillips, of Claremont, California; a niece, Sri Charlesworth; two nephews, Benjamin Vail and Nicholas Vail; and nine great-nieces and great-nephews. She is also survived by her husband, Stephen Siegel, from whom she was separated.

Interment will be in the family plot at Highland Park Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio, in spring 2023. Details of a celebration of Wendy’s life will be announced later.