Catherine (Case) Schiffman

Born September 5th, 1944 in Waco, Texas and raised in West, Texas; daughter of the late Joyce Sord Case and Nelson Case of West, Texas.

Cathy graduated cum laude in education from Baylor University in 1983, and Masters Degree in Education from Southwestern University Lafayette, Louisiana. At Baylor Cathy achieved proficiency in Spanish, while majoring in Education. That provided her first teaching position, Introductory Spanish at Woodway Middle School, Woodway, Texas. Over the course of her career Cathy taught in seven venues ranging from middle school to universities, completing her career at C.E. Ellison High School in Killeen, Texas.

Cathy followed her mother as a career educator, and fed her passion for British literature, enabling her to inspire a generation of young people with the richness of literary imagery and thought. Over the course of her life she and Hal traveled extensively but her passion was always the British Isles, where she deposited her mother’s ashes in locations meaningful to Joyce, and made true and lasting friends along the way, but was most at peace at Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage and in England’s Lake District.

Cathy’s love for her home state of Texas was deep and well known. When she and Hal moved to Lafayette, Louisiana she cried upon crossing the Sabine River, leaving Texas. She came to love Lafayette, the dear friends acquired, the crawfish Hal would peel for her, and the rich culture of Acadiana. So, upon returning to Texas after seven years in Lafayette she cried before they were even out of Lafayette Parish, and forever cherished her time in Lafayette and south Louisiana.

Cathy was an avid needle-crafter choosing counted cross-stitch as her preference, upon introduction to it by niece Kate Foster. Having a lifelong love of books, was also a voracious reader, however nothing compared to her abiding love for all dogs. She was Mom to a cavalcade of rescues over many years, with Legs, Donneaux, Gumbo, Louie and Bentley being fondest in her heart (and Hal’s).

Predeceased by son Richard Aaron Rosen of Waco, Texas Cathy is survived by her husband of 40 years, Hal Schiffman of Harker Heights, Texas, and son Steven Todd Rosen of Rehovot, Israel, granddaughter Reagan Alicia Rosen Kieling (Erik) of Portland, Oregon, and grandson Austin Case Rosen (Samantha) of Soldotna, Alaska.