The late Tom Thorne and Beth Williams spent many years researching wildlife diseases at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's Sybille Wildlife Research and Conservation Unit near Wheatland.

The married couple owned a section of land and built a cabin a few miles above the research unit, in part because they loved the land, the habitat and the wildlife in the area, officials said.

Game and Fish officials decided the best way to honor the recently deceased wildlife disease experts is to rename the Sybille facility and the nearby habitat unit in their honor.

The Sybille wildlife research center will be henceforth known as the Tom Thorne/Beth Williams Wildlife Research Center and the nearby Sybille/Johnson Creek wildlife habitat management area as the Tom Thorne/Beth Williams WHMA.

The Game and Fish Commission approved the permanent memorial honoring the two scientists during a meeting Friday in Casper.

The two experts on such wildlife diseases as brucellosis and chronic wasting disease were killed in a snowy-weather car crash on US. Highway 287 in northern Colorado on Dec. 30.

"Tom and Beth were two of the most genuine, generous and kind people I've ever met… (Their death) was a profound and tragic personal and professional loss," Game and Fish Deputy Director Gregg Arthur said.

"They dedicated their lives to conservation, and their impacts on wildlife in Wyoming have truly made a difference," Arthur said. "It's appropriate that we memorialize Tom and Beth in this way."

Thorne, 63, served as acting director of the Game and Fish Department for nine months in 2002 and 2003. He worked for the agency for 35 years before retiring in 2003 to work as a consultant for the department. He was a prominent researcher of chronic wasting disease in deer and elk and brucellosis in elk and bison.

Williams, 53, had taught at the University of Wyoming since 1982 and was considered the foremost wasting disease expert in the country.

Arthur said the agency wants to place two large signs honoring both scientists that would be placed in front of the visitor center at Sybille. Another metal plaque honoring the pair will be placed on a large rock or boulder at the old check station near the entrance to the wildlife management habitat area.

Arthur estimated the cost of the signs at about $8,000.

He said a ceremony to unveil the memorial is tentatively scheduled for early September.

Reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at (307) 875-5359 or gearino@trib.com.