Connie M. Schepps
Connie Mendez Schepps passed away on Sept. 10, 2022, after a long battle with dementia.
She was born on Aug. 29, 1931, in Durango, Mexico, to Jesus and Maria Mendez.
Connie was preceded in death by her husband of 64 years, David Joe Schepps, and her son, Robert Allen Schepps.
She is survived by her four children: Louis Schepps, Sidney Schepps and his wife Gina, Sylvia Schepps and Debra Schepps; her 11 grandchildren: Steven and Melissa Schepps, Molly and Joe Brown, Jennifer and Ralph Esparza, Isaac and Kim Cunningham, Jocela and Brehan Crawford, Tiffany and Trey Brock, Jeffrey Akard, Gabriela and Owen Baker, Camryn Schepps, Rylie Schepps and Ben Schepps; and her six great-grandchildren.
The funeral service for Connie was held Sept. 14 at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home in Dallas. Committal service followed at Shearith Israel Memorial Park on Dolphin Road. Rabbi Adam Roffman officiated.
The family requests donations be made to the Alzheimer’s Association of North Texas.
Monty Joseph Strauss
Monty Joseph Strauss was born to Milton and Ann Schloss Strauss on Aug. 26, 1945, in Tyler, and died on Sept. 9, 2022, in Plano. His father died in 1954, and his mother married Alfred Salfield in 1955; all predeceased him, as did his brother, Larry S. Strauss. He is survived by his wife, Jane L. Winer of Plano; his sister, Susie Salfield Avnery of Dallas; and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. Monty graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas (1963). At Rice University, he was a National Merit Scholar, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year and earned a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in mathematics (1967). He earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University (1971), where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. He joined the Department of Mathematics of Texas Tech University (TTU) as assistant professor (1971), was promoted to associate professor (1975) and to professor (1985) and retired in 2010. He published research in pure and applied mathematics; received the first NSF research grant in his department; co-authored several editions of “Calculus,” a three-semester college textbook; served on the Faculty Senate and its predecessor, the Faculty Council Executive Committee; and served as director of graduate studies, director of undergraduate studies and associate chair of mathematics. He served the Graduate School for a decade, as associate dean for admissions and information systems and as senior associate dean. He served on the Tenure Policy Task Force that rewrote the tenure policy and helped resolve TTU’s tenure crisis (1986), and was an officer of the Texas Association of College Teachers. He served on the steering committee that brought a Phi Beta Kappa (PBK) chapter to TTU and was a founder of PBK of West Texas–Eastern New Mexico. He co-directed the multiyear NSF-funded South Plains Mathematics Scholars Project. He received numerous Outstanding Mathematics Faculty awards and Honors College Outstanding Faculty Member recognitions, including the first Honors College Outstanding Faculty medallion. He and Jane endowed six scholarships at TTU. He was a life member of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America, and served the national mathematics community, organizing conferences and reviewing for journals, publishers and federal granting agencies. Monty collected stamps from childhood on, developed the definitive collection of mathematics and mathematicians on stamps worldwide and founded and served as president of an international organization of mathematical philatelists, writing numerous articles for its newsletter, Philamath. Having grown up in Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, he was national vice president of the Student Zionist Organization of America at NYU, and he was responsible for securing the charter of Hillel for TTU, serving as faculty adviser for Hillel and its predecessor, the Jewish Student Organization, for 17 years. He was a member of Lubbock’s Congregation Shaareth Israel from 1971 until his death, serving as an officer or board member for many years including four terms as president. In December 2018, Monty and Jane moved to The Legacy Willow Bend, Plano, where they were also members of Temple Shalom Dallas. With Jane, he was the 1995 honoree of Israel Bonds in Lubbock, and he was a Life Associate Member of Hadassah. In retirement, Monty and Jane cruised the world until Jane’s cancer diagnosis in 2018. The funeral service, under the auspices of Sanders Funeral Home of Lubbock, was conducted by Rabbi Deborah Goldmann on Sept. 20 at Congregation Shaareth Israel, followed by burial at City of Lubbock Cemetery. A memorial service will be conducted at Temple Shalom at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, that is open to the community. A memorial service for residents only will be at 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, at The Legacy Willow Bend. Memorial contributions are suggested to the Monty J. Strauss Scholarship in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at TTU, P.O. Box 41081, Lubbock, TX 79409-1081; Congregation Shaareth Israel, P.O. Box 93594, Lubbock, TX 79493; the Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36104; Hadassah, P.O. Box 795774, Dallas, TX 75379; or United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW, Washington, DC 20024-2126.
