Mrs. Wilber was born April 7, 1913, in Rutherford, N.J., graduating from Westford High School in Massachusetts in 1929. A thespian from an early age, having appeared in many dramatic enterprises as a teenager, she entered Emerson College at the age of 16 to study Literature Interpretation. In December 1930, she won a part in the production by the Boston Opera House of the Oberammergau-style “Passion play” reported in the Fulton Patriot at the time for “her exceptionally vivid portrayal of a great biblical character.”

Graduating in the class of 1933, she had attended the first class offered by the college in the emerging medium of radio. At the graduation ceremonies, she received the first Emerson College “President’s Award” as the graduate closest to founder Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “ideal in character, personality, and quality.”

At the end of her child-rearing years in the early 1960s, she taught intellectually challenged children at Stop 28, Fulton. Upon earning her master’s degree in education from Syracuse University in 1963, she taught fourth grade in Palmer Elementary School in Baldwinsville for 12 years.

A Sunday School teacher and women’s group leader in the 1940s and 1950s, she served as an elder at the First Presbyterian Church of Fulton through 1994 and as representative to UPUSA Presbytery Headquarters in Syracuse. She was a children’s storyteller and “supply pulpit” for sermons at area churches.

Mrs. Wilber served for many years as a regular volunteer and later member of the board of directors of the Northeastern Department of the Salvation Army headquartered in West Nyack and of the Presbyterian Retirement Home in Auburn.

She was a member of the Kayendatsyona/Ft. Oswego Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution, the Moses Dewitt Chapter of the National Society of the Daughter’s of the Colonists, and of Fulton’s 1909 Shakespeare Club, which was founded in its namesake-year by her grandmother, Maria C. Sylvester.

Her parents, Dr. Harold D. Sylvester and Lena (Merriam) Sylvester, began education careers in Oswego County as turn-of-the-century, one-room-school-house teachers. About 1945, Dr. Sylvester was recruited home to be superintendent of Fulton-area rural schools until consolidation in 1957.

Her mother was a product of the Merriam and Vant pioneer families of Volney, east of Fulton. Her father was Watson Merriam, a prominent turn-of-the century, second generation Volney general store owner and Oswego County civic leader who served as the treasurer of the Oswego County Fair. A grandfather, Frederick Vant, was a successful 19th century Mount Pleasant farmer and horse breeder whose historic farm was featured in a June 1983 issue of The Valley News.

Married in December 1934 at the First Baptist Church of Fulton, she was predeceased by her husband of 39 years, John Arlon Wilber, also a Fulton native, who over 40 years with the Fulton Nestle Co. before his death in 1974, had risen to assistant superintendent during the height of the plant’s production and employment of the 1950s and ‘60s.

Surviving are three children, Clarice Wilber and Harold Wilber, both of Las Vegas, Nev., and Maurice Wilber of Burke, Va.; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 12:30 to 2 p.m. May 23 at Foster Funeral Home, 910 Fay St., Fulton immediately followed by a memorial service.

Interment is at Mount Adnah Cemetery, Fulton.

Contributions may be made to The First United Church of Fulton, 33 S. Third St., Fulton NY 13069; Friends of History in Fulton, P.O. Box 157, Fulton NY 13069; Mount Adnah Cemetery Association, 706 E. Broadway, Fulton NY 13069; and United Through Reading, 11555 Sorrento Valley Road Suite 203, San Diego, CA 92131.