Marjorie Quinn Kozak

A Memorial Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, October 1, 2011 at St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, Midland. Monsignor James P. Bridges, Pastor of St. Stephens, will officiate.

Marjorie was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, February 23, 1924, the daughter of Joseph Jerome Quinn, Sr. and Isabelle Moffat Quinn. She attended John Carroll Catholic School (the parochial school of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help) in Oklahoma City, and was graduated in 1941 from the French Institute of Notre Dame de Sion in Kansas City, Missouri, the only French-speaking high school in the United States.

In 1945, she graduated from Rosary College – now Dominican University – in River Forest, Illinois, with a Bachelor of Arts degree and double majors in French and Philosophy and a minor in Spanish. In 1945 she entered the University of Oklahoma where she began her graduate studies in French. She was a graduate assistant in the Department of Foreign Languages at Oklahoma University where in 1946, she met her husband-to-be, Dan Kozak, a student in one of her Spanish classes. In May, 1948, she received her Master of Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma with double majors in French and Philosophy. Her major professor was the renowned Dr. Pierre Delattre, who directed her scholarly thesis in French titled, “The Physical Basis of Rhyme in French Poetry in the 19th Century.”

Marjorie married Dan Kozak, June 26, 1948, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. From 1948 to 1951, the couple lived in Norman, Oklahoma, where Marjorie was a French instructor on the faculty of the Foreign Language Department at the University of Oklahoma while Dan was completing his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in geology from Oklahoma University. In 1951, the couple moved to Ardmore, Oklahoma where Dan began his 23-year career as a petroleum geologist with the Pure Oil Company, which later merged with the Union Oil Company of California. During this period, the couple lived in Ardmore, Oklahoma, 1951-55; Amarillo, Texas, 1955-59; Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1959-60; Newark, Ohio, 1960-64; Oklahoma City, 1964-70; Midland Texas, 1970 until the present time. Mr. Kozak resigned from Union Oil in 1974 and after a six-year stint with John L. Cox, 1974-80, followed by six years with Pogo Producing Company, 1980-86, retired to become an independent consulting geologist in Midland. The Kozaks also divided their time between Midland and Santa Fe, New Mexico where they had a second home since 1994. They chose Santa Fe for the glorious celebration of their 50th Wedding Anniversary, June 26, 1998 at Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. Mr. Kozak died ten years later on November 27, 2008.

Marjorie retired from teaching French at the University of Oklahoma in 1951 and did not return to the classroom until 1962 when both of her children were in grade school. In Newark, Ohio, she taught French classes to gifted students at Newark High School, 1962-63. From 1964-70, she was a French instructor in Oklahoma City at Northwest Classen High School, where she was nominated “Teacher of the Year” to represent Northwest Classen in the Oklahoma City Public School System. After her husband’s transfer to Midland in 1970, Marjorie began her teaching career at Trinity School of Midland as the Upper School French teacher and head of the Foreign Language Dept. She taught Upper School (grades 6-9) from 1970 to 1981 at Trinity where her students excelled in the regional Foreign Language Quaternion, the San Angelo Foreign Language Festival and the state-wide French Symposium, competing against high school students. She and Mr. Kozak also took her 8th and 9th grade students to Paris, France, many years over spring break. She retired from Trinity School of Midland in 1981, after 22 years of teaching French on all levels.

Marjorie was a long-time volunteer for the hospital auxiliary at Memorial Hospital and Medical Center, Midland, where she was a “Pink Lady” in the Surgical Waiting Room. She was a former member of the American Association of University Women and Kappa Gamma Pi, National Honorary Society of Catholic Women’s Colleges. She was also a member of the Permian Basin Geological and Geophysical Auxiliary, Midland Texas; the Midland Country Club Ladies Association; and alumnae/i associations of Notre Dame de Sion, Kansas City, Missouri, Rosary College (Dominican University), River Forest, Illinois, and the University of Oklahoma, Norman Oklahoma.

Through the years she was an avid correspondent and enjoyed aerobics, downhill skiing, fine art, poetry writing, watercolor painting, creative writing and above all, worshipped her three grandchildren. She especially loved photography and took thousands of photographs a year. She and Mr. Kozak traveled extensively, especially to Europe, concentrating on France, and to the Hawaiian Islands, mostly Kauai, where her daughter lived. She loved the purple mountains, golden aspen, spectacular sunsets and ever-changing seasons of her adopted state of New Mexico, visiting Taos of her childhood summers and living with her husband in their beloved Santa Fe, the last years of her life.

Marjorie Kozak was full of love for life, people and beauty in nature. Her “joie de vivre” will survive in the spirit of her two children, three grandchildren and hundreds of French students whose lives she enriched and to whom she was simply “Madame.” First and foremost, her family was her most treasured possession and she was a devoted family member who adored her husband, children and grandchildren. She had a myriad of lifetime friends and her thoughtfulness illuminated numerous lives. She never forgot a birthday or an anniversary and she had a penchant for the color blue, butterflies (especially blue ones) and anything French. She loved vocal music, having belonged to church choirs throughout high school and the Rosary College Glee Club (which always performed with the men’s Notre Dame University Glee Club) throughout her college years. French, Latin and Spanish were always her favorite subjects, especially French which she spoke fluently. Her enthusiasm and love of teaching French was evidenced by the academic excellence demonstrated by many of her students in language contests and in later life, by becoming French teachers. She always took time to enjoy a glorious West Texas sunrise in Midland or a flaming New Mexico sunset. Marjorie had a deep love for her cherished Catholic faith and celebrated life with a continual awe and sense of wonder found in God’s creations here on earth.

She was preceded in death by the love of her life, her husband of sixty one years, Frank “Dan” Kozak; her father, Joseph J. Quinn, Sr.; her mother, Isabelle M. Quinn; her brother, Joseph J. (Jerry) Quinn Jr.; her sister, Jacqueline Quinn McCarty; her sister-in-law, Dolores Kozak Kreger, and her niece, Shelly Ann Quinn.

Marjorie is survived by her beloved children, her daughter, Danette S. Kozak, Santa Fe, New Mexico, her son, Jeffrey Alan Kozak, M.D., Houston, Texas; Lee Ann Kozak, Houston, Texas; her adored grandchildren, her granddaughter, Ashley E. Kozak, Austin, Texas and her grandsons, Daniel F. Kozak, Tucson, Arizona and Travis M. Kozak, Nashville, Tennessee; and her brother, Wendell F. Quinn, Redwood City, California. Other survivors include her four nephews: Mark Quinn McCarty, Kaneohe, Hawaii; Joseph J. Quinn III, DVM, Dallas, Texas; Brian B. Quinn, Kentfield, California; and David Quinn, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; as well as four nieces, Kathleen Quinn, Karen Ann Kreger and Kathy Jo Kreger, all of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Carolyn Quinn Tuomala, Atherton, California.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Marjorie Quinn Kozak be made to Trinity School, 3500 W. Wadley, Midland Texas, 79707.

Arrangements are under the direction of Ellis Funeral Home, Midland, Texas. Condolences can be made at www.ellisfunerals.com.