LeAnn Cragun Obituary (2007)

This is the obituary for LeAnn Cragun of Washington, published in the Washington Post, January 16, 2007.

LeAnn Cragun, 60, a college teacher and administrator, died of metastatic cancer Jan. 10 at her home in Washington.

Beginning in 1984, Ms. Cragun taught for the overseas division of the University of Maryland's University College, in Germany, Belgium and Italy, before accepting an administrative job in Heidelberg, Germany. In 1988, she transferred to London to direct the school's programs in England and Iceland. She returned to the United States in 1990.

She rejoined the UMUC program in Asia in 1993 and taught in Japan and Okinawa before returning to the Washington area.

Ms. Cragun worked briefly as a contract employee with the Army's higher education program office and was at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists flew an airliner into the building. She was on the opposite side of the structure and escaped injury.

Born in Ogden, Utah, she attended Weber State College there and graduated from the University of Hawaii, where she also received her master's degree in 1976 and her doctorate in 1982, both in American studies. She spent the next year as a Fulbright scholar, teaching at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.

While living in London, Ms. Cragun became a skydiver. She pursued her hobby wherever she lived, including making several jumps from the Orange County airport in Virginia.

Survivors include her husband of 34 years, Air Force Col. Paul C. Phillips; four stepchildren, Patrick Phillips of Washington, Robin Phillips of Phoenix, Kelley Phillips of Kauai, Hawaii, and Moshe Obernstein of San Francisco; two brothers; two sisters; and eight grandchildren.

LeAnn Cragun apparently gained notoriety in Hawaii in the 1970s, as cited in the Honolulu Advisor on January 27, 2007

LEANN CRAGUN, 60, died Jan. 10, 2007. Born in Ogden, Utah. An activist in the feminist movement in Hawai'i in the 1970s; challenged a Hawai'i law that required a woman to take her husband's last name when she married, leading to a change in the law to allow Island married women to retain their birth names. Survived by husband, Paul Phillips; two brothers and two sisters. Service held in Washington, D.C.