Wayne was born on August 6, 1923 in Hillsdale, Michigan, the son of Clyde and Della (Matthews) Lesher. The family moved to University Grove area of East Lansing in 1925 with the idea that all the children could easily attend college if they were near campus. He did receive all his degrees from Michigan State including a Bachelors in Civil Engineering, a Masters and Doctorate in Higher and Continuing Education. Wayne's education was interrupted by being called to active duty in the US Army Air Corps. He chose to become a navigator on a B-17 bomber flying out of Italy in the 15th Air Force. Lt Lesher was wounded by flak on a mission, sent to Rome to recover, received a Purple Heart medal and returned to complete the rest of his missions. While recuperating in Rome he had the opportunity to explore the city. He was approached with an invitation to the Vatican for a private audience with Pope Pius XII. It was one of the highlights in his life. In 2018 he was inducted into the Lansing Community College Veterans Memorial.
After the war Wayne returned to complete his education and had many jobs including surveyor, engineer, and teacher at Ferris State University, Lansing Community College, and Grand Rapids Junior College. At Ferris, he was hired to develop curriculum for a degree in surveying. He was most proud of this, as there was very few programs available anywhere in the country. Wayne made it clear in the curriculum that no women were allowed to take these courses. At that time, he did not feel that women should be doing the physically demanding and dirty work that was required on the job. He realized in later years that this was not at all the case.
During the war Wayne met a beautiful young woman in Texas and immediately fell in love. Miss California 1945, was a rising Hollywood starlet, and placed 5th in the Miss America Pageant that year. Years later, after the war, the were married in California but the marriage ended 2 years later in divorce. Wayne returned to Lansing where he worked for the State of Michigan and met the true love of his life, Dorothy Below. Dorothy was an educated, adventurous woman and loved to travel. She was a woman of very deep faith and encouraged Wayne to become baptized at the age of 48. Wayne shared with her his deep love of the outdoors and communing with nature. He introduced her to fishing and camping and their honeymoon was rustic camping on Isle Royale. Dorothy fed wild animals out of her hands. She learned about geology and rock collecting and she became very good at fishing. Wayne's favorite destinations were northern Michigan, the Upper Peninsula and Canada. He traveled to the UP by the train ferry before the bridge was built and being an engineer, took pictures of the construction on his way across.
Wayne was extremely generous and caring of others. He was invited to share his WWII experiences to the young men of the Christian Service Brigade. This was the very first time Wayne shared his experiences about the war with anyone and he was quite nervous about it. He stated that by doing this the Brigade helped him more than he helped them and continued to do this for over 15 years.
Wayne grew up with and loved all cats, but especially his last cat, Nicky who probably gave him 2 more years of life. He enjoyed feeding the birds, squirrels and other animals in his yard, gardening in a neck tie, bowling, attending church and bible study, playing the mandolin and harmonica. He did admit he was a bad singer. Wayne was loved by so many neighbors, friends and family and will be greatly missed.
A memorial service will be held on July 21, 2021 at 11 a.m. at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, 2900 N. Waverly Rd., Lansing. Visitation before service at 10 a.m.
Memorial will be livestreamed, https://www.facebook.com/ststephenlutheran/live_videos/
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