JACKSONVILLE, FLA—Wesley Esterbrook Pullman, Ph.D., adventurer, professor, sociologist and dreamer, died of complications from a stroke on Saturday, June 4, 2022, at Community Hospice McGraw Center for Caring in Jacksonville, Florida. He was 72.
He grew up in Garden City, New York, and graduated from Garden City High School in 1968. In 1972, he married Harriet “Happy” Pullman. Wes and Happy moved to Lancaster County, where they were active members of the community.
Wes, a lifelong learner and teacher, earned his bachelor’s from Washington & Lee University in Lexington and went on to earn a doctorate in sociology in 1996 from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, as well as a subsequent master’s in social work in 2002.
Wes had a deep sense of adventure and curiosity that led him to explore the world; from coordinating mission trips from the Northern Neck of Virginia to Honduras in the 1980s, to traveling to Kenya while researching his dissertation and teaching in Odessa, Ukraine, with the Civic Education Project.
He is survived by his three children and their spouses, Sallie Pullman and Matthew Buttrill, Travis Pullman and Jennifer Berglund, Grant Pullman and Emma Pullman; four grandchildren, Maxwell Buttrill, Beatrice Buttrill, Mabel Pullman, and Harriet “Hattie” Pullman; three sisters, Susan Willetts, Nancy Lynch and Cindy Woolsey; and many nieces and nephews.
The family will host a memorial service at 1 p.m. Tuesday, November 22, at Grace Episcopal Church, 303 South Main Street, Kilmarnock. The service will be open to the public for friends and family to attend and celebrate Wes’s life.
