Archives West Finding Aid

Frederick and Clara Toppan were married at the Episcopal Chapel of the Transfiguration in Grand Teton National Park on July 23, 1949. They lived on Toppan's family property, the Lodgepole Ranch, just outside of Grand Teton National Park. Mr. Toppan was born in Massachusetts on April 29, 1902. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in geology from Union College in 1932. He served in World War II. He settled on the family property with his mother in 1941, and became very active in the nearby community of Jackson. He was instrumental in the construction of the first ski lift in Jackson at Snow King. He was an avid outdoorsman and was considered an expert hunter and fisherman. He also was an avid collector of hunting, fishing, outdoors, and natural history books and built an extensive library. He passed away on November 20, 1966, in Laramie. Mrs. Toppan was born Clara Anna Raab on November 9, 1910, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She was raised in Laramie and graduated from Laramie High School in 1927 and from the University of Wyoming in 1931 with an accounting degree. In 1937 she became a certified public accountant for the federal government and was hired on as a clerk for the National Park Service at Grand Teton National Park. She became Wyoming's first female certified public accountant when she received her Wyoming State Board of Accountancy certification on June 1, 1945. She formed a private practice in Jackson that same year. Wyoming Governor Mike Sullivan declared June 22, 1990, as Clara Raab Toppan Day. She was honored as a distinguished alumna of the University of Wyoming in 1995, and she was instrumental in establishing the Toppan Rare Books Library at the University of Wyoming. Mrs. Toppan passed away on October 2, 2001.