Marjorie Schropfer

Marge Schropfer died peacefully November 12, 2014 at Meadow Wind Assisted Living after a long and full life. Born May 12, 1923 on a farm in Rush County, Kansas, the youngest of three children, her playmates were a Shetland pony and a dog. The three of them spent summers exploring the 640-acre playground that was the family farm. She attended school in a one-room schoolhouse with 11 other students from grades 1 through 8, then graduated from Larned High School and Ottawa University. After graduation, she taught high school biology for one year before migrating to Denver, chosen because she disliked the Kansas wind. In Denver she worked at the Bureau of Internal Revenue until she met R. W. (Bill) Schropfer at a USO dance and married him on Thanksgiving 1946. They moved to Laramie, WY where Bill graduated from the University of Wyoming as an architect. They then moved to Casper where they raised three children (David, Linda and Beth) and Bill practiced architecture until his death in 1989. In 1961, Marge began teaching ninth grade English at Dean Morgan Junior High. The following year she transferred to CY Junior High, where she continued teaching until her retirement in 1986, when she also received the Golden Key Outstanding Educator Award. Because she and her siblings were the only ones among their numerous cousins to go to college, and because Bill was the only one of his generation to graduate from college, she was very proud of the fact that her three children (and their spouses) and all four grandchildren (and their spouses) graduated from college, several with advanced degrees. As a career-long member of the political action committee of the Natrona County Education Association (serving as president of that association from 1981 to 1982) and as a member of the Natrona County School Board from 1990 to 2000 (serving as president of the board her last year), she was a tireless advocate for teachers and students and literacy, and an outspoken opponent of any form of censorship. Apart from her teaching, Marge had a lifelong passion for writing, theatre, women's rights, travel, golf, bridge, and talking politics over a good cup of coffee or a stiff gin and tonic. Up until her final week, she still enjoyed keeping up on the news, reading literature with her daughters over the phone, and beating the pants off anyone foolish enough to challenge her to a game of Spades. She was preceded in death by her parents, Sara Elizabeth and Lewis Harper Conard, her older sister Lenore Hare and her brother Richard Conard, and her husband R.W. Schropfer. . She is survived by her children: David (Jean) Schropfer, Linda (Frank) Griggs, and Beth Wiley; grandchildren Frank (Sonal) Schropfer, Karen (Perry) Peterson, Richard (Kristin) Wiley, Susan (Tim) Ward; 8 great grandchildren, brothers and sisters in law, Jess and Georgia Schropfer, Louis and Darlene Schropfer), many nephews and nieces, and many, many, many, many students. Memorial services will be at 10:00 AM, Wednesday, November 19, 2014, at the First Christian Church. 520 CY AVE Inurnment will take place at Oregon Trail Veterans Cemetery. An additional tribute will be held at Meadow Wind at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Marge's name to First Christian Church, 520 CY, Casper, Wyoming 82601, Restoration Church, P. O. Box 3444-20199, Reston, VA 20195, Central Wyoming Hospice, 319 So. Wilson, Casper, WY 82601.

Service

Wednesday, November 19, 2014 10:00am

First Christian Church

520 CY Avenue

Casper, Wyoming 82601