Ellen Ann de Kanter, Ed.D.

Ellen Ann Tharp de Kanter, beloved mother of four children, grandmother to nine, and great-grandmother to nine, passed away on December 20, 2025, at the age of 99, leaving a void her family cannot fill.

Dr. Ellen de Kanter was born in Spokane, Washington, on March 10, 1926, to George Lemuel Tharp and Alison Pickard Christy. Ellen began her college studies at Whitworth College in Spokane and later attended Eastern Washington State College, majoring in education—a field that would become her lifelong vocation and cause.

In 1946, Ellen took a fateful vacation to Mexico, driving with her mother and a close friend. In Mexico City, they rented rooms at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Hubert de Kanter, a well-respected international family. Over breakfast one morning, Ellen met their landlords’ son, Scipio de Kanter, a young engineer working for General Electric in Monterrey, Mexico. Months later they became engaged and the two married at the de Kanter home on February 2, 1947. While living in Mexico City, Ellen completed her bachelor’s degree at Mexico City College fulfilling a promise to her mother.

Ellen and Scipio lived in Mexico for seven years, where they welcomed their three oldest children: Scipio, Georgette Christy, and Robert Alexander. In 1954, the family moved to Pennsylvania, where Scipio accepted an engineering position and their youngest child, Adriana Alison, was born. Ellen often said that the birth of her children changed her life for the better: “Of all the things your father and I experienced, you four children have been the most rewarding and most wonderful part of our lives.” Ellen devoted the next twenty years to her roles as mother and wife and enthusiastically embraced Scipio’s evolving engineering career as an aerospace professional. They lived in Huntsville, Alabama (Redstone Arsenal), Cocoa Beach, Florida (Kennedy Space Center), and Houston, Texas (Johnson Space Center).

It was in Houston where Ellen returned to school, earning two masters’ degrees in education and Spanish literature from the University of Houston. She went on to pursue a doctorate in Bilingual and Multicultural Education, graduating in 1979. Immediately thereafter, she joined the faculty at the University of St. Thomas in Houston where she taught for 25 years. Dr. de Kanter was a highly skilled grant writer in the field of bilingual education teacher training. She built a large and prestigious bilingual education program within UST’s School of Education and served as its director. It was often said that more bilingual education teachers in Houston graduated from her program than from any other.

Always curious, Ellen was a world traveler during her vacations from teaching. Europe and Latin America were her usual destinations. She even climbed Machu Pichu in her late 70’s. In 2004, Ellen and her family funded and began the Scipio and Ellen de Kanter Dual Language Teacher Preparation Scholarship at the University of St. Thomas for undergraduate students pursuing a bilingual teaching career. In 2009, the Texas Association for Bilingual Education awarded Dr. de Kanter its Lifetime Achievement Award for professional excellence and dedication. One need only look at her career to marvel at her unwavering pursuit of social justice, civil rights, and educational equity.

Dr. de Kanter is survived by her four children and their spouses (Colonel (Ret.) Scipio and Mary de Kanter of Springfield, Virginia; Georgette and Rick Sullins of Bellville, TX; Robert de Kanter and Anetta Bauer of Missouri City, TX; Adriana de Kanter and Steve Erickson of Vero Beach, FL and Asheville, NC. She also leaves her grandchildren and great grandchildren: Dr. Caitlyn Boyd de Kanter (Sean Vander Linde), Christine Alison de Kanter Malcolm (Roy Malcolm), Kimberly Ann de Kanter, Alexandra Boyd Vander Linde, Lucy Ellen Vander Linde, Henry Franklin Vander Linde; Karel Christy Sullins, Aidan Casey Sullins, Alison Kendall Sullins Smith (Ryan Smith), Caeden Ryan Smith, Emory Ellen Smith; Robert Alexander de Kanter, Jr. (Melanie Rudolph), Peter Christopher de Kanter, Nicholas Ryan de Kanter (Donna Rilee), Joan Elaine Bauer-de Kanter, Logan Eduardo de Kanter, Oliver Maxwell de Kanter, and Ivan Nicholas de Kanter; all of whom will forever cherish the love she brought into their lives. Many nieces and nephews were part of her extended family. Her devoted caregivers, Charlene Hutchins and Kathy Lewis, are also remembered as family for their love and dedication to Ellen. And, of course, her most inspiring legacy is in the student teachers she taught and who fill our classrooms.

A visitation will be held at Earthman Southwest Funeral Home, located at 12555 South Kirkwood Road in Stafford, on Monday, December 29, 2025, from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The funeral service will take place at Southminster Presbyterian Church, 2310 Brightwater Drive in Missouri City, on Tuesday, December 30, 2025, starting at 10:00 am.

Immediately following, the service all are invited to greet the family and share remembrances of Ellen during a reception in to be held at Southminster Presbyterian Church.

The interment will follow via funeral procession to Earthman Resthaven Cemetery in Houston.

In lieu of flowers, the family would like donations made to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. colorectalcancer.org