In Iowa, those [1972] games were also remembered for Wilber, who finished ahead of archers from Poland and Russia on the medal podium in a sport reintroduced to the Olympics for the first time in more than a half-century.

“If you saw the movie, ‘The Natural’ — she was a natural archer,” Paul Wilber said. “She was physically strong and she had an amazing concentration. She could shut things out and focus on a target.”

What is the measure of ones life? The ability to help and hopefully inspire others. It sounds like the Wilber family did just that, and more.

The Wilbers did not raise children of their own, but worked extensively with area kids through a junior Olympic development program for 12 years.

“We didn’t have any of our own — so we had to claim everyone else’s,” Paul Wilber said.

Doreen Wilber enjoyed the more than 20 kids in her backyard shooting at targets — with a simple but important rule.

“They always shoot away from the house,” Wilber told the Register in 1991.

Mrs. Wilber sounds like a true Olympian to me.

Read more here:
Wilber, first woman from Iowa to win Olympic gold, dies at 78
Ron Maly writes about his interviews with Doreen Wilber