Cindy Englan Wentz, born and raised in Ashland, Wisconsin, quietly departed this realm in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on March 30, 2026. She was 68, three weeks shy of her 69th birthday.
She was born Cindy Kay Englan on April 18, 1957, the third child of Jeanne Marie Vogue and Richard James “Dick” Englan Jr., who later owned Sketch Korner tavern in Ashland from 1962-72. Cindy was waiting tables in her grandmother’s (Florence Thompson Derda) restaurant, which was attached to Sketch Korner, by the age of 7. She was devoted to her grandmother and loved every minute they could spend together.
In the spring of 1972, the family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to get away from the snow and cold. She attended Mitchell High School, enjoying the creative writing classes and senior seminar field trips most of all.
Cindy loved all dogs, her family always had poodles and later they raised Dobermans as well. She got her first dog when she was five and was hooked. From that point on, she could never see a dog without stopping to say hello. She felt the same way about people, they were never strangers, she was friendly with everybody she met.
When she was 18, she moved to Orange County, California, to see if the Beach Boys songs about the California sun and surf were true. While she was there, she met her first husband, David Franklin Stanley. They moved back to Colorado Springs and were married on October 4, 1980. She lived in Vancouver, Washington; Aurora, Colorado; and Janesville, Wisconsin, before settling down in Colorado Springs again. Despite that, she was a Wisconsin girl through and through.
David and Cindy had two sons, Adam David and Matthew James. Her marriage to David ended in divorce in 2007. Cindy married Timothy Joseph Wentz on October 10, 2010, and often said that Tim was everything she’d ever hoped for in a man. She loved his two sons, David and Patrick, like they were her own.
Adam and Matthew planted a seed in her when they asked to be homeschooled. Cindy was a devoted unschooling advocate from that point on and continuing until the day she died. She did new homeschooler seminars, taught the ins and outs of the Colorado homeschool laws and organized the inclusive 1998 Homeschooling For Everyone conference attracting people from all over the country to speak and to attend.
Cindy also loved doing genealogy research. She found hundreds of cousins that she’d never been told about and she would help anyone who asked.
Cindy was preceded in death by her parents; her maternal grandmother, Florence Derda; her first husband, David; her sisters, Bonnie Englan and Kathie Englan; and her niece, Kathie’s daughter, Laurie Jean Mendoza.
She is survived by her husband, Tim; her sons, Adam and Matthew; her stepsons, David and Patrick; two grandnephews, Devon Jacob Uelman and Hunter Mendoza Hagan; and a grandniece, Kieley Mendoza-Hagon.
No memorial service is planned. Donations may be made in Cindy’s name to your local Humane Society.
