She was born in Paris, Kentucky, in 1922.[1][2] She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Kentucky, graduating magna cum laude.[1] She married her husband, architect William Wichman, and settled in Lexington, Kentucky, where she pursued a career as an artist.[1] She also taught English.[1]
Adalin Wichman served as the adverting director for Keeneland, a Kentucky thoroughbred horse racing facility, from 1969 until 1989.[1]
In 1971, Keeneland's J.B. Faulconer asked Wichman to create a bronze statuette to serve as the prize for the Thoroughbred Racing Association's Eclipse Award.[1] Wichman based her design for the Eclipse Award Trophy on an 18th-century painting of the undefeated English racehorse, Eclipse.[1] The first Eclipse Awards, featuring Wichman's trophy, was held in 1972 to honor the 1971 racing season.[1]
In addition equestrian pieces, Wichman also created other non-equestrian works as well. She created the Foucault pendulum clock, which is displayed in the rotunda of the Lexington Public Library.[2] Wichman designed a two-sided bust of the Kentuckian historian Thomas D. Clark, which is housed at the Lexington History Museum.[2] Her painting of Lucille Caudill Little can be found hanging in the Little Fine Arts Library at the University of Kentucky.[2]
Wichman was awarded the Milner Award in 2011, the highest prize awarded by the Kentucky Governor's Awards in the Arts.[2]
Adalin Wichman died from a brief illness at her home in Lexington, Kentucky, on March 10, 2013, at the age of 91.[1] She was survived by her two daughters, Adrian and Alison. Her husband, William, died in 2000.[1]
