Broadway star Gretchen Wyler was Warwick resident, known for her animals rights efforts

Warwick — Getchen Wyler, a Broadway actress and a founder of the Warwick Valley Humane Society and later, the Ark Trust, died on May 27 in her Camarillo, Calif., home of breast cancer at the age of 75. A singer, dancer and actress in Broadway musicals such as “Guys and Dolls,” “Silk Stockings,” “Damn Yankees,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” and in motion pictures such as “Private Benjamin,” Wyler became involved in animal protection in the late 1960s after visiting the Warwick animal shelter. She felt the shelter, at that time, was inadequate to serve the community. After the divorce from her husband, well-known musical director Shepherd Colman, Wyler moved to California where she founded the Ark Trust for the protection of animals. In 1997 Wyler returned to Warwick and revisited the shelter. She had traveled east to receive the American Humane Association’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the organization’s annual convention in Philadelphia. At that same time Roger Gavan, a reporter for The Warwick Advertiser, was also honored by the association and attended the same convention where he received the “Media Excellence Award.” Gavan had written a series of articles for the Warwick Advertiser about a local animal abuse case. The stories resulted in the passage of a New York State Law that involved a requirement that persons whose animals were confiscated for abuse post a bond for the care and feeding of the animals pending the outcome of the case. Gavan accompanied Wyler during her visit and tour of the Warwick shelter.