Esther Bodanis Shifrin

Esther “Teri” Bodanis Shifrin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on July 30, 1930 to Alec and Mildred Levant Bodanis. When Teri was six years old her family moved to Chicago. The family lived in Chicago’s North-side Albany Park, a largely Jewish neighborhood. Teri graduated from Von Steuben High School in 1948 and in 1951 earned a bachelor's degree in English from Lake Forest College. In the 1960s, Teri enrolled in Central State College in Edmond where she earned a Master’s Degree in Education.

Teri met Richard “Dick” Shifrin when they were teenagers at a party that, as she joked, neither had really wanted to attend. After a long courtship Teri and Dick married in 1951. They shared a beautiful marriage filled with love, friends, and world-wide travel for 64 years until Dick’s death in 2015. Teri loved Dick and their three children, David, Judy and Margaret, above all else. She took great pleasure in her children’s happiness with their lives, and she loved her daughter-in-law Raisa, sons-in-law Ken and Sam, and her grandchildren Rachel, Alexandra and Sophie.

In 1955, Dick joined an Oklahoma City anesthesia group as a founding member, and the couple made Oklahoma their home and joined Temple B’nai Israel. Teri’s participation in the Jewish community was always very important to her. Teri and Dick were active at the Temple throughout their many years in Oklahoma City, and Teri served the Temple in many board and committee leadership roles. She cherished her many dear friends at the Temple.

In addition to Temple activities, Teri was an active member of the Oklahoma City greater community. One of her favorite volunteer activities was serving for many years as a docent at the Oklahoma City Symphony’s Show House tours. Teri also volunteered for several years for the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Unit, and served on a local consumer advocate committee that reviewed “Lemon Law” complaints by automobile company customers.

Teri loved culture and the arts. During the 1960s and 1970s, she and Dick were season ticket holders at the Oklahoma City Civic Music Concert Series. They were also regular attendees at performances by the Oklahoma City Symphony and the Dallas Opera. Teri and Dick loved to share their home with family and friends and Teri was a renowned hostess of many lovely and delicious dinner parties, Passover Seders, and Thanksgiving gatherings. Teri was an avid reader and lifelong learner. She read the New York Times and Wall Street Journal every day, was active in book clubs and lectures, and loved shows produced by National Public Radio.

Teri lived life to the fullest until the brief and sudden illness that ended her life on July 22, 2022. She will be dearly missed.

Survivors include Teri’s sister Bernette (Merrill) Hoyt of Sarasota, Florida and Ter’s children David Shifrin and wife Raisa of Tucson Arizona, Judy King and husband Ken and granddaughter Rachel of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Margaret Roberts and husband Sam and Alexandra and Sophie of Austin, Texas, and many loving cousins, nieces, and nephews.