William Sand Mueller

William Sand Mueller, "Sand," left this world on November 7, 2022, with family at his bedside. He was born February 2, 1946 to Kathleen Elizabeth (Sawyer) and Jack Lawrence Mueller in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Sand grew up in Texas. He stood out as a National Merit Scholar and attended Rice University and was President of Baker College Residence. He graduated with a double major in History and German in 1968. Sand served in the Teacher Corps in Chicago before he was drafted into Vietnam in 1968. However, he protested the Vietnam War and maintained a moral objection to the war. As a conscientious objector, he completed two years of alternative service as a psychiatric orderly at the Chicago Neuropsychiatric Institute where he met a young nurse, Marsha Heasley. Sand married Marsha Lynn Heasley on July 1, 1972. In their 29 years of marriage, they had 4 children and lived in remote and beautiful locations including Jemez Springs, New Mexico and Las Salinas, Baja California-Mexico. Sand worked in horticulture for over forty years, growing roses, carnations, bedding plants, and trees. Sand designed and built many commercial and home greenhouses, and he loved offering greenhouse design consultation. He served as the groundskeeper at the University Center of Tulsa (�UCT' now Oklahoma State University-Tulsa) from 1991-1997. He was president of the Oklahoma Urban and Community Forestry Council from 1995-1997. Sand recognized the sacred ground of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre on the UCT campus in the 1990's. In the spring of 1993, Sand facilitated a Reconciliation Ceremony in collaboration with UCT president Roger Randle, Greenwood Cultural Center and Tulsa Schools. Tulsa Race Massacre Survivor, Lenora Davis was the keynote speaker. One hundred and fifty 5th and 6th graders from Emerson Elementary intertwined white and black ribbons and tied them to trees all over campus. Union High School and Dunbar Junior High bands provided music. An official from the US Department of Agriculture presented UCT with a check for $10,000 dollar tree planning grant written by Sand. Tulsa mayor Susan Savage declared May 14th, 1993 "Sandy Mueller Day" in the city of Tulsa because of his leadership at UCT and the "initiator of the Greenwood Park concept and the reconciliation ceremony". In 2002Sand found his spiritual home with the Gurdjieff Foundation of Texas-Houston. In 2020 he published a memoir called My Life with Plants. He is predeceased by his parents. He is survived by his former wife, Marsha Lynn Heasley of Tulsa, his children, Arena and Walter Foddis (son-in-law) of Tulsa; Graham Mueller and Katrina Serrano (daughter-in-law) of Silver Spring, Maryland; Heath Mueller of Tulsa; and Rachael and Richard Rymel (son-in-law) of McLoud; and his grandchildren, Christian, Casin, Jeremy, Jacob, RaeLynn, Nash, Wednesday, and Nora. Sand is also survived by his sister, Annie Mueller, and his brothers, Chris and John Mueller, all from Austin, Texas and a former partner of twelve years, Mary Francis Sullivan of New York. Celebration of Life will be 2pm, Monday November 21, 2022 at Serenity Funerals and Cremation Chapel. Donations in his memory can be made to the Tulsa Up With Trees or the Tulsa SPCA.

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William Sand Mueller

February 2, 1946 - November 7, 2022