A memorial service celebrating the life of
Elizabeth Skidmore Sasser, Ph.D., Architecture
Professor Emeritus, will be celebrated at 4:00
p.m. on Tuesday, August 23, 2005 at the Merket
Alumni Center on the Texas Tech University
Campus. A brief reception will follow for
friends to visit with the family and share
memories of Dr. Sasser.
Dr. Sasser passed away peacefully on Sunday,
August 14, 2005 after a brief illness following a
stroke.
She is survived by her husband of 56 years,
Thomas J. Sasser, and a daughter, S. Elizabeth
Sasser, AIA, of Amherst, New Hampshire.
The Dr. Elizabeth Skidmore Sasser Memorial
Lecture Endowment has been established in her
honor in the College of Architecture at Texas
Tech University. Gifts to the lecture endowment
may be made through the Texas Tech Foundation,
Inc., Box 5025, Lubbock, Texas 79409.
For more than forty years, from 1949 to 1990, Dr.
Elizabeth Sasser enlightened Texas Tech students
to the special wonders of architectural history
and art. Her passion and enthusiasm for her
subject, and for life, were contagious. Through
the years, students of varied interests and
academic disciplines filled her classes. Her
creative mind launched new adventures for
hundreds of students. Following retirement from
Texas Tech, Dr. Sasser continued to teach through
special lectures and books published on topics of
art and architecture. Books she authored in
collaboration with Tom Sasser include “Out of the
Ordinary”, on the art of Paul Milosevich; “Dugout
to Deco/ a history of West Texas architecture
from 1880-1930”; and “The World of the Spirits
and Ancestors” on the art of Western Sub-Saharan
Africa. Her life’s work is a hallmark of
astounding curiosity and aesthetic achievement.
