Staff Reports
A reception is 3-5 p.m. Thursday for Nevada Rock Art Foundation executive director Alanah Woody, 51, who died July 19 following a heart attack she suffered a few days earlier.
The reception for the 17-year Minden resident will be held at Barone & Reed, 1599 Esmeralda Ave.
Woody's husband, Angus R. Quinlan, said he has received condolences from around the world, including Belgium and China, where Woody's work to preserve ancient rock art was well known.
She was the topic of a June 2005 Smithsonian article on rock art and co-founded the rock art foundation.
Her father was a tunnel engineer who worked on projects across the globe. Woody's childhood years were spent traveling to places such as Pakistan and the Dominican Republic, with her brothers Duane and Dwight, and her mother Lola so that they could be by her father's side. These childhood travels stimulated an interest in other cultures that would ultimately be expressed in her passion for anthropology, which later became her career. As a young woman, Woody helped care for her mother Lola during Lola's battles with serious illness. Her mother's death in 2001 affected Woody greatly, family members said.
She studied anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno and gained a doctorate from the University of Southhampton, England in 2000. It was at Southhampton that she met her future husband Angus, also an archaeologist. She specialized in the archaeology of rock art and was a well-known researcher in the field with numerous professional publications and magazine articles written about her.
She always felt a connection with the past and the peoples of the past by being at rock art sites - her primary interest was always the human aspect of the material expression of past cultures. Woody was an advocate for the protection of the rock art of the desert West and developed public interest in the cause.
A memorial service will be 2 p.m. Thursday at FitzHenry's Carson Valley Funeral Home in Gardnerville.
