In Memoriam

Alumni

Austin College Board of Trustees

This generous and faithful member of the College’s Board of Trustees died during the past year. Find the full obituary on the College website.

Senior Trustee Ellis Olmstead died September 2, 2022. A civic leader in Sherman, he was active on the College’s board from 1994 to 2006, serving as a longtime chair of the Investment Committee, as well as a member of the Business Affairs Committee. He was a business leader, particularly within Chapman Inc. and Shell Oil, and was involved in many community affairs. He served on the boards of, among others, Wilson N. Jones Hospital, the Sherman Chamber of Commerce, and Grayson County Airport authority, leading all of those.

Friends We Will Miss

Thomas “Tom” Caskey, M.D., husband of Senior Trustee Peggy Pearce Caskey and parent and grandparent of alumni, died January 13, 2022. During his distinguished medical career, he was known for leading groundbreaking research in human genetics.

Joan E. Douglass, wife of Austin College Trustee Bill Douglass, died February 24, 2022. She served on numerous community boards in the Sherman area, including a founding role with Home Hospice of Grayson County.

Jerome “Jerry” McNair Fullinwider, a 2013 Austin College Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters recipient, died on July 21, 2022.

Retiree Karl Haller died on April 15, 2022, at 105. He spent more than 33 years in Austin College Biology classrooms and labs as a staff and adjunct faculty member until he retired in May 1998.

Frances Neidhardt, the widow of Dr. Carl Neidhardt, died on June 15, 2022. She was a lover of art, poetry, and literature. Retiree Jessielea Patrick died on October 23, 2022. In her 30 years at the College, she saw technology for her job heading up telephone services advance from switchboard operator to digital telecommunications.

Marie Schores, the widow of Associate Professor Emeritus of Sociology Dan Schores, died on July 28, 2022.

Betty Stephens, widow of Senior Trustee Dr. Raymond Stephens, died August 15, 2022. Parent of three ’Roo alumni, she was deeply involved alongside Ray in all aspects of Austin College life including establishing an international studies scholarship fund in the Stephens family name.

Retiree Cathy Stewart died on September 10, 2022. She was an administrative assistant for 30+ years in Science and Math, from 1972 until she retired in June 2002. In the IDEA Center, the Mary Catherine Stewart Administrative Office, just outside the office of the Dean of Science, honors her.

Austin College Faculty

Austin College faculty members often arrive on campus planning to stay only a few years—and retire from the College many years later. We celebrate the lives of these faculty members who did just that—and who now have died after making a tremendous mark upon the students, faculty, and history of Austin College. Find full  obituaries on the College website.

Professor Emeritus of Classics James F. (Jim) Johnson died October 31, 2022. Johnson joined the Austin College faculty in 1977 and retired in 2013. During those 36 years, he taught Heritage of Western Man and Communication/Inquiry, along with his academic specialties—classical civilization, Greek, and Latin—as well as “Classical Mythology.” He also led several January Term study trips to Greece. Johnson helped to lead Austin College’s Richardson Summer Language Institute for high school language teachers for many years as well as high school Latin conferences on
campus. Very involved in professional organizations, he was selected as the Texas Foreign Language Association College Teacher of the Year in 1992.

Kim Victoria Snipes died November 12, 2022. She joined the Austin College faculty in 1993 as Biology Lab Coordinator/Safety Instructor and Adjunct Instructor in Biology, when she and her husband, Dr. Wayne Meyer, moved to the community for Meyer to take a position with the Biology faculty. Snipes lost her eyesight due to complications from cancer, but she found ways to incorporate her blindness into her teaching and raise awareness of the realities of disability.

Dr. Howard A. Starr, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Education, died October 28, 2022. He joined the Austin College faculty in 1964 and retired in 2013, making him one of the longest-tenured faculty in the College’s history. In addition to teaching, Starr served in many capacities at the College, among them chair of the counseling center, Dean of Social Sciences, and Vice President of the former College Relations Division, which included the areas of admission, financial aid, alumni and parent relations, college information, and college mailing and printing services. A certified Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Texas, Starr was also certified as a Clinical Hypnotist by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and was a Diplomate of the American
Psychotherapy Association (APA).