The Mary Frances "Ricky" Blackstone and Jack Dieterich Scholarship

Emerita Mary Frances Blackstone (Ricky) graduated from UCLA in 1942 with a B.A. in Latin and French. After accompanying her airforce husband through many states, they settled in Wyoming in 1958 with their three children. After graduation from UCLA, Ricky worked as an editor and advertising copywriter, medical secretary, patents librarian, and bookkeeper for the Air Force and for private business, and as a college administrator. She taught English, Latin, and other subjects at every level from junior high to the university level. When her youngest child entered kindergarten, she enrolled in the University of Wyoming College of Law, taking only classes offered while her children were at school. Ricky graduated from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1969, passed the bar, and began work as an Assistant and then Associate Law Librarian. Ricky then moved onto teaching at the University of Wyoming College of Law, becoming the school’s second female faculty member. She went on to teach several courses over the years including Family Law, Sex Discrimination and the Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Local Government Law. Ricky accomplished a lot in her twenty-eight years on the faculty, when she eventually retired in 1997. In addition to her personal and career accomplishments, she also loved music and travel. She played violin in the University Symphony Orchestra for thirty-two years and traveled to over thirty countries. During her retirement, she said the thing she missed most about teaching is “a greater opportunity to know the law students better.”