Sarah Montgomery Marple-Cantrell

1990-2003

Eulogy

A close friend, Susan Chizeck, wrote a eulogy for Sarah.

Memorials

• The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science of The University of Texas at Dallas has established a scholarship endowment in Sarah's memory. Income from the endowment is being used to award scholarships to incoming women students, beginning Fall 2009. Our intent is that these scholarships be used to help women enter the field of engineering. Gifts may be sent to:
The University of Texas at Dallas
Development Office, MP13
Attention: Mr. Aaron Conley
800 W. Campbell Road
Richardson, TX 75080-3021
Please be sure to refer to Sarah's full name (Sarah Montgomery Marple-Cantrell) in correspondence with Mr. Conley and on the check.


• St. Alcuin Montessori School, where Sarah spent happy years from Toddler class (beginning at eighteen months) through second grade, has established a scholarship fund in Sarah's memory. Gifts may be sent to:
St. Alcuin Montessori School
6144 Churchill Way
Dallas, TX 75230


• Sarah attended Greenhill School from third through sixth grade. Gifts may be sent to:
Greenhill School
4141 Spring Valley Road
Addison, TX 75001

Guestbook

The guestbook is a place for Sarah's friends and friends of the family to share comments, stories, and pictures, or just to sign in.

Things to remember about Sarah

• Sarah loved nature, word games and pratfalls.
• She wanted to be a great writer.
• She had a pet rooster and a pet turtle.
• She had "a wonderful wacky sense of humor" (Susan Chizeck's words).
• She liked to figure out how things work.
• She was happiest outdoors, around the campfire, and walking in the woods, where she could identify oak trees by their bark.
• Sarah loved summer camp. She had wonderful times at Camp Classen in Oklahoma's Arbuckle Mountains and Echo Hill Ranch in the Texas Hill Country.

Pictures of Sarah

• At age six months. Sarah told me in 2002 that this picture and one of her reading were her favorites.
• With her big sister, Christmas 1993.
• Dressed as a ballerina for Halloween, Fall 1995.
• Her first grade school picture, Fall 1997.
• With her big sister at Six Flags Over Texas, December 1998.
• At computer camp, summer 1999.
• Holding a favorite rock, Palo Duro Canyon, summer 1999.
• Holding her pet rooster, George. She raised George from a three-day-old peep. He thought she was his mother. (I've never before seen a rooster let anyone hold him like that. Usually roosters start using their spurs on you if you get close to them...)
• Throwing a water balloon in Camp Classen, Oklahoma.
• Analyzing a rod pump at the Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas. All her life, Sarah had a lot of curiosity about how things work. Before she could walk, Sarah had a little rotating gadget, intended to soothe babies to sleep, that lit up, projected tiny stars on the ceiling, and played "It's a small world after all". On her first encounter with this object, she crawled over to it, picked up one edge, and looked under it.
• On the summit of Wheeler Peak (elevation 13,161 ft.), the highest point in New Mexico, August 2000.
• On her bike, early summer 2001. Sarah paid for the bike that I'm riding with her own money, then gave it to me.
• At the Arkansas River, near Cotopaxi, Colorado, Summer 2001.
• At Palo Duro Canyon, Texas, Summer 2001.
• At her eleventh birthday party in late December 2001.
• At Echo Hill Ranch, near Medina, Texas, Summer 2002.
• Her sixth grade school picture, Fall 2002.
• Our last picture of Sarah, on a family camping trip to Turner Falls State Park, Oklahoma, March 21, 2003. Sarah is on the right.

Sarah's gravesite

Sarah is buried in Restland Memorial Park, Dallas, Texas.

Her mother, her sister and I designed her grave marker and a bench for meditation.

On the first anniversary of Sarah's death, her friend Peter placed a wreath in her memory. The items on the wreath recall some of the happy times that they shared.