Dr. George Robert Vick

Dr. George Robert Vick Dr. George Robert Vick was born to Clara Lena Arnold Vick and George Henry Vick on December 18, 1920 at his paternal grandmother’s farm between Huntsville and New Waverly, Texas. He passed away in Huntsville on August 19, 2013 at age 92. He is survived by his wife of sixty nine and a half years, Sybil Heath Vick, and his younger daughter, Christina Vick. He was preceded in death by his parents, his uncles and one aunt, and his elder daughter, Adrienne Vick. From first grade through high school, George attended the Demonstration School on the campus of Sam Houston State Teachers College, now Sam Houston State University, graduating as valedictorian of the last senior class. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at that university, where he taught mathematics for forty six years, chairing the department for eleven years. In pursuit of his doctorate in the 1950s and 1960s, he attended the University of Iowa and the University of Oklahoma, ultimately receiving the Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. In the 1970s he chaired the Texas section of the Mathematical Association of America. During his tenure at SHSU he served on numerous committees, including an advisory committee to the university president. In 2003 he was honored to receive the SHSU Alumni Association Service Award for exemplifying the university motto, “The measure of a life is its service.” For one year prior to his induction into the United States Army during World War II, he taught at Huntsville High School, where he met his future bride, Sybil Heath. They married on Christmas Day 1943. During the war he had a year’s anti-aircraft training in El Paso before being shipped to England and then on to the European theatre, where he served in the Occupation Army, finally returning to his family on Mother’s Day 1946. George had a lifelong love of music, beginning as a student of Miss Inez Powell. He played the guitar and the accordion, and during the occupation was able to attend the University of Nancy, France, where he studied piano and voice. George and Sybil sang in Huntsville’s historic first production of Handel’s Messiah at Sam Houston’s Old Main building on the evening of December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day. In light of the terrible events of that day, the choir thought no one would come; the house was packed. He and Sybil sang in many subsequent productions of The Messiah over the years, and George performed in local productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors, several Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, the Huntsville Men’s Chorus, and with Sybil in the Bach Choir. For nearly forty years, George and Sybil had season tickets to the Houston Grand Opera, but George also loved Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers and the Light Crust Doughboys. At least as important as his professional career to George was his lifelong membership in the Huntsville Church of Christ, where for many decades he taught adult classes, led the congregational singing, and served as an elder. George and Sybil were world travelers, visiting Canada, Great Britain, Europe, the USSR, Hawaii, Japan, China, Morocco, Crete, and Rhodes. Dr. Vick’s memorial service will take place on Thursday, August 22 at 10:00 a.m. at the Huntsville Church of Christ. Interment will follow at the Adickes Addition of Oakwood Cemetery in Huntsville. The family will receive friends Wednesday, August 21, 5:00-8:00 p.m. at Sam Houston Memorial Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that people make contributions to their favorite charities. Those wishing to leave memorial condolences for the family may do so at www.shmfh.com.

Dr. George Robert Vick

December 18, 1920 - August 22, 2013