Dr Willetta Wyatt-Silva born May 18, 1933 in Champaign Ill to Golda and William Wyatt passed away on December 29, 2020.

Dr Silva dedicated the early part of her career to helping children with learning disabilities and dedicated the later part of her career to seniors, aging and gerontology.

She received her MS degree in 1958 from Illinois State University and went on to work for the Philadelphia Public Schools (PPS) where she focused on implementing testing to identify LDs and modifying instructional practices and curriculum. During this time she was also the 2 ^nd Vice President to the National Association for Children with Learning Disabilities (ACLD) where she was Chairman of Legislation and instrumental in passing the The Learning Disability Act of 1969 for which she received the President's Award.  She continued her education in 1983 completing her PhD at Southern Illinois University concentrating on Neurometric Measures of the Brain regions and functions.

She retired from PPS and spent the next 10 years as a Tenured Professor of English at Tohoku Gakuin University in Sendia Japan and a Research Associate with Tohoku University Department of Nuclear Medicine, she was also as an Adjunct Professor at Heidelberg Collage, Sapporo Japan and Professor of Language at Shokei Women's Junior College.

She returned to the states to focus on seniors and continued to work as a part time Adjunct Professor at Villanova University, John Hopkins University and Pennsylvania State University.  She was also a Professor Emeritus at Widner University where she was a founding member of the Academy for Learning in Retirement.

Upon her retirement she was selected as the Pennsylvania representative for Ms. Senior America, a competition for women over 60 that have exemplary records of service to their community and individual achievements.  She spent her retirement producing and directing a local television show Senior Moments: Living to be 100.  Unfortunately, those things she fought for awareness in others befell her in her later years in the form of dementia.

She was preceded by her husband John Silva and is survived by her sister Sandra Wyatt, her children; John, Lisa and Angela, grandson Joseph and great grandchildren.

There will be no service at this time.  Donations in lieu of flowers can be sent to LDS of PA (ldaofpa.org) or the Penn Memory Center (pennmemorycenter.org)