Kathryn Pulley Respess 1939-2015
St. Stephen's will hold a memorial service for Kathryn Respess (1939-2015) on Saturday, September 19, 2015, at 1 p.m. in the school Chapel. Inurnment of ashes will follow in the Memorial Garden on campus. Following the inurnment, a reception will be held in the Temple Dining Hall. Please join us in this tribute to Ms. Respess.
Esther Kathryn Pulley Respess passed away peacefully in Austin, Texas, on July 16, 2015, at the age of 75. She was born on November 12, 1939, to Edward Lee Pulley and Mary Katherine Gill Pulley. She attended school in Houston, Texas, graduating from Milby High School and Rice University. As a Rice senior, she was named to Phi Beta Kappa and was selected to be a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. On February 1, 1964, she married John Respess, whom she met at Rice. In 1965, the Respesses moved to the campus of St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas, where Kathryn began a stellar teaching career.
At St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, she taught generations of students to love history and learning. Her students literally span the decades and the globe. She lived and worked at St. Stephen’s, and her presence in girls’ dormitories and in the residential community enlivened and enriched young boarders from Texas and around the world.
Kathryn had just completed her golden anniversary of teaching at St. Stephen's fifty remarkable years and was the senior teacher on the faculty. Her contributions to the school’s core identity are myriad. She was known as a teacher who promoted high standards of academic work, and did so in a way that encouraged a true and lively life of the mind. She also saw education in a broad view, including diversity, environmentalism, religion and knowledge of sacred stories from many faiths as part of an educated person’s store of knowledge and understanding. She was a soughtafter advisor, teacher, and school speaker.
She won the 1990 Texas Committee for the Humanities Outstanding Teaching of the Humanities Award. She won multiple awards for wildflower photography, including those sponsored by the National Wildflower Research Center.
An influential environmentalist, she was instrumental in the formation of Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve, a 227-acre tract of land protected from development in 1974. Today the preserve is owned by Travis County and St. Edward’s University and is managed by the Balcones Canyonland Preserve. It is home to the endangered golden-cheeked warbler.
Kathryn loved to laugh, cook, listen to Schubert and Wagner, watch foreign films, and enjoy sparkling conversation with friends and students. One of her favorite traditions was to ride a golf cart around the center of the St. Stephen's campus on the last day of school, her Brunhilde helmet on and Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” loudly streaming out of her golf cart as she brandished her operatic spear in the air.
Kathryn was predeceased by her parents; her husband John who died on February 23, 2014; her siblings, Jane Elizabeth, John Douglas, Robert, and Thomas Pulley; and a nephew, Robert Pulley. She is survived by her nephews Glenn Pulley and Richard Pulley, and her nieces Marilyn Pulley Hunter, Nancy Pulley Tiernan and Donna Pulley Hodkinson. Her niece Nancy described her as the “most entertaining aunt ever." She also leaves behind many friends, former students and colleagues who loved and respected her.
A memorial service will be held in the St. Stephen’s School Chapel resumes. Details will be provided when they are available. The ashes of both Kathryn and John will be interred in the St. Stephen’s Memorial Garden. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Kathryn Respess Financial Aid Endowment at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School. Kathryn cared very much about her students and particularly wanted to offer assistance to students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to attend St. Stephen's.
Click here to download "Kathryn Respess taught at St. Stephen's for 50 years" by Bradley Saacks in the Austin American-Statesman (PDF)
Kathyrn Respess Ride of the Valkyries.
Kathyrn Respess in the classroom.
Kathryn Respess reflects on her 50 years at St. Stephen's, December 2014
Chris Mabley's dedication to Kathryn Respess, December 2014
Back
Esther Kathryn Pulley Respess passed away peacefully in Austin, Texas, on July 16, 2015, at the age of 75. She was born on November 12, 1939, to Edward Lee Pulley and Mary Katherine Gill Pulley. She attended school in Houston, Texas, graduating from Milby High School and Rice University. As a Rice senior, she was named to Phi Beta Kappa and was selected to be a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. On February 1, 1964, she married John Respess, whom she met at Rice. In 1965, the Respesses moved to the campus of St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas, where Kathryn began a stellar teaching career.
At St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, she taught generations of students to love history and learning. Her students literally span the decades and the globe. She lived and worked at St. Stephen’s, and her presence in girls’ dormitories and in the residential community enlivened and enriched young boarders from Texas and around the world.
Kathryn had just completed her golden anniversary of teaching at St. Stephen's fifty remarkable years and was the senior teacher on the faculty. Her contributions to the school’s core identity are myriad. She was known as a teacher who promoted high standards of academic work, and did so in a way that encouraged a true and lively life of the mind. She also saw education in a broad view, including diversity, environmentalism, religion and knowledge of sacred stories from many faiths as part of an educated person’s store of knowledge and understanding. She was a soughtafter advisor, teacher, and school speaker.
She won the 1990 Texas Committee for the Humanities Outstanding Teaching of the Humanities Award. She won multiple awards for wildflower photography, including those sponsored by the National Wildflower Research Center.
An influential environmentalist, she was instrumental in the formation of Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve, a 227-acre tract of land protected from development in 1974. Today the preserve is owned by Travis County and St. Edward’s University and is managed by the Balcones Canyonland Preserve. It is home to the endangered golden-cheeked warbler.
Kathryn loved to laugh, cook, listen to Schubert and Wagner, watch foreign films, and enjoy sparkling conversation with friends and students. One of her favorite traditions was to ride a golf cart around the center of the St. Stephen's campus on the last day of school, her Brunhilde helmet on and Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” loudly streaming out of her golf cart as she brandished her operatic spear in the air.
Kathryn was predeceased by her parents; her husband John who died on February 23, 2014; her siblings, Jane Elizabeth, John Douglas, Robert, and Thomas Pulley; and a nephew, Robert Pulley. She is survived by her nephews Glenn Pulley and Richard Pulley, and her nieces Marilyn Pulley Hunter, Nancy Pulley Tiernan and Donna Pulley Hodkinson. Her niece Nancy described her as the “most entertaining aunt ever." She also leaves behind many friends, former students and colleagues who loved and respected her.
A memorial service will be held in the St. Stephen’s School Chapel resumes. Details will be provided when they are available. The ashes of both Kathryn and John will be interred in the St. Stephen’s Memorial Garden. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Kathryn Respess Financial Aid Endowment at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School. Kathryn cared very much about her students and particularly wanted to offer assistance to students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to attend St. Stephen's.
Click here to download "Kathryn Respess taught at St. Stephen's for 50 years" by Bradley Saacks in the Austin American-Statesman (PDF)
Kathyrn Respess Ride of the Valkyries.
Kathyrn Respess in the classroom.
Kathryn Respess reflects on her 50 years at St. Stephen's, December 2014
Chris Mabley's dedication to Kathryn Respess, December 2014
Address: 6500 St. Stephen's Dr., Austin, TX 78746
Phone: (512) 327-1213
Phone: (512) 327-1213