Santa Fe, New Mexico

Barbara Nylund, who lived with open arms and an open heart, died on December 26, 2024, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Her life was illuminated by a sense of wonder in all things and by the spirit of adventure. She radiated a warmth, easily shared, and an indomitable intellectual curiosity.

A Doctor of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology and a Colonel in the US Army Medical Corps, she lived with a fierce sense of justice and the dignity of every being, and with a dedication to serve others.

She was born in 1943 in Galveston, Texas, where her father, Theodore Nylund, served in the Army Corps of Engineers. The family returned to New Mexico, where her mother, Mabel Richardson, worked as a legal secretary. Mabel had known many prominent people in her youth, including Leonard Sly, aka Roy Rogers, Peter Hurd, the renowned New Mexico artist who painted the official portrait of President L.B.J., and Jim White who claimed discovery of the bats of Carlsbad Caverns. So, as a child, Barbara was given firsthand knowledge of artists’ studios, musical groups, explorers and naturalists. The Seaton Ranch was only a short ride from her Uncle Bob’s Lone Pine Ranch; Helen Hardin, a classmate, introduced Barbara to her mother, the muralist Pablita Velarde, and to printmakers Gene Kloss and R.C. Gorman.

In Santa Fe, Barbara began her lifelong love of learning at Kaune Elementary school. Graduating from Sandia High in Albuquerque, she attended the University of New Mexico as an undergraduate and graduate student. She received a PhD from George Washington University for research on membrane transport and returned to UNM, joining the Army to complete her medical education. Embarking on courses in photography, art, celestial navigation and astronomy, as well as wilderness and marine medicine, she never stopped learning. Having spent so many years studying, she would often say her life “was an open book.”

In 1976 she met and married John Ross Morgan, Jr., a nuclear engineer. After his death, Barbara established a fund in his name to support environmental law at the Library of the UNM Law School, where he had been studying.

As a doctor she was dedicated to patient care, advocating for access and concerned with ethical standards. She took on many leadership roles. She was chief of Gastroenterology at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii and then at Letterman Army Hospital at the Presidio, San Francisco. After many years of private practice, during which she served on the Board of the Marin Medical Society, as Medical Director of Our Lady of Peace Hospice of Marin and as Chief of Staff of Novato Community Hospital, she received the highest honor in her field, the American Gastroenterological Association Fellowship.

Barbara loved the outdoors, raised rabbits, rode horses and pitched tents. She became a Girl Scout, a riding councilor and, at age 16, participated in the New Mexico Civil Air Patrol. Inspired by her cousin Marlene, who had a pilot’s license, Barbara wrote a school paper about Jacqueline Cochran, a pioneer in women’s aviation and the first woman to break the sound barrier. Cochran was the head of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), more than a thousand American women fliers in non-combat roles during World War II. Barbara sent her the biography and it was returned with a signature and a note: “Don’t stop flying!”

Undeterred by boundaries, Barbara applied to the astronaut program before any women had been admitted. In her pulmonology rotation she had the privilege of testing several of the Astronauts of Apollo 15 who were training for their moonwalk on the New Mexico plains. In 1989 she met and later married Wendyn Cadden, an artist and activist, and together they dedicated their lives to sailing and social justice.

Later, in California, while still in the Army Reserves, Colonel Nylund spoke to groups of high school students alongside Leon “Woodie” Spears, a Tuskegee Airman, one of the surviving African American aviators who fought courageously in Europe, facing discrimination in training, assignments and recognition. She illuminated the unrecognized service of the WASPs and introduced the Navajo Code Talker Chester Nez of the US Marine Corps as he was promoting his book that described the invaluable skills that helped the US Military outsmart Japanese intelligence in WWII.

Dr Nylund will be remembered for her endless generosity, her skill and caring as a medical practitioner, her fierce sense of justice and her loving heart. She died after a long battle with reality in dementia.

A former resident of Corte Madera, she was laid to rest with military honors at Santa Fe National Cemetery on March 28th. In addition to her spouse, Wendyn Cadden, she is survived by her sister, Marilyn Beall; nephew, Nathan Alexander Beall; and grandnieces, Mattie Rose and Samaera Beall.

Donations in memory of Barbara Nylund may be made to the John Ross Morgan, Jr. Library Endowment for Environmental Law (#632020), MSC11 6070, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87131.