Alaine Fay Coppin

Alaine Fay Coppin went home to be with her Lord and Savior on August 30, 2021.  She will be sorely missed by her husband of fifty-seven years, her three children, son-in-law, family, and friends.

Alaine Fay Anderson was born on November 1, 1943, to Andrew Anderson and Dora Anderson (formerly Jacobson) who were both children of Swedish immigrants.  Fay, as she was known then, grew up in Williamson County near Hare, Texas, on the land farmed by her parents and originally purchased by her grandparents Jacobson.

After attending the two-room schoolhouse in Hare, Texas, she attended Thrall High school where she graduated at age sixteen as the valedictorian.  She was the only woman from her class to go to college.  Upon arriving at Southwestern University, she adopted her first and middle name and was known as Alaine Fay for the rest of her life. She met her future husband, Charles Coppin, in the university library when he checked out her books and “talked to her.” She graduated from Southwestern University in 1964 in three and one-half years — a week before marrying her husband.   She discovered years later when she needed a transcript to apply for a job that she had graduated fifth in her class.

While Charles completed his PhD in Mathematics, they lived in Austin where she worked as an administrative assistant at the University of Texas College of Pharmacy.  Later, she worked for the State Health Department.  This period also marks the start of a half century of quiet, unsung support for mathematics and mathematics education as Charles credits her as “very much a part of his career, as his proofreader and coauthor in life.”

When Charles became a faculty member at the University of Dallas in 1968, they moved to Irving, Texas, where they lived for thirty-four years.  They had three children, Stephen (born 1970), Peter (born 1972), and Sarah (born 1979).  They attended Irving Bible Church and Park Cities Presbyterian Church.

Alaine Fay taught typing throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s at the Treetops School which her children attended.  With the advent of the personal computer (and on the urging of her husband), she taught the students the child-friendly Logo programming language (“staying a week ahead of the kids” she would always say).  In the 1990s, she was the administrative associate in the politics department at the University of Dallas.  She organized Constitution Day and various other special events.  She was simultaneously staff, faculty spouse, student parent, and advisor to Charles during his many stints as departmental chair.

With their children out of the house, in 2002, Alaine Fay and Charles moved to Beaumont, Texas, where Charles was chair and a member of the mathematics faculty at Lamar University until retiring in 2014.  She continued her role as advisor to Charles in his professional work. There, she began her active participation in Bible Study Fellowship. In 2017, they moved to Charles’ hometown, Belton, Texas.

A lifelong sewer, cross stitcher, and crafter, Alaine Fay found community with the faculty spouse embroidery and book clubs at Lamar University. After moving to Belton, she again found a home with a community of crafters at the Threads of Love ministry who sew baby clothes for premature babies.  She continued her participation in Bible Study Fellowship.

Alaine Fay was a prodigious letter writer throughout her life. In addition to keeping in touch with family, she was lifelong pen pal with Carol Bryant of England starting in school in the 1950s. Those were years of sharing family stories. Both she and Carol were farm girls.  She had a long correspondence with Inger Littberger of Sweden since around 2000 when she sent letters to Sweden to addresses from her late mother’s address book and got one reply in return translated by Ms. Littberger.  Because of this correspondence with Ms. Littberger, she became an avid consumer of Swedish literature, biography, and fiction.

The granddaughter of Swedish immigrants on both sides, she spent a lifetime trying to understand her Swedish roots and the immigrant experience, especially those of Swedes in Texas. As an only child and only grandchild on one side, Alaine Fay not only had a strong urge to understand where she was from but also a strong affection for family and genealogy. She was always investigating some branch of her combined family tree (even from her hospital bed). And she kept her extended family connected by editing the Coppin-Quinn family newsletter for eighteen years.

She was a consummate people watcher and enjoyed meeting people wherever she would go, from students at the University of Dallas to the doctors and nurses in her last months. She witnessed to God’s glory without knowing.  That light will be missed by all who knew her.

Alaine Fay passed on August 30, 2021, while recovering from open heart surgery. She is survived by her husband, Charles Coppin, her two sons, Stephen and Peter, and her daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and Mike Edwards, in-laws, and many nieces and nephews.  She was loved dearly by her husband and children.

In lieu of flowers, Alaine Fay asked that people support the education of future mathematics students by donating to the Dr Charles Coppin Scholarship in Mathematics at the University of Dallas.  Donations should be made out to “University of Dallas” with “Dr. Charles Coppin Scholarship in Mathematics” in the memo line of the check. Mail to: Office of University Advancement, University of Dallas, 1845 E. Northgate Dr., Irving, TX 75062.   Alternatively, her family asks that people support her community of crafters who make clothes for premature babies in the NICU by donating to the Threads of Love Ministry of Belton. Donations should be made out to “Belton Church of Christ” with “Threads of Love” in the memo line of the check.  Mail to: Threads of Love c/o Belton Church of Christ, 3003 North Main St, Belton, TX 76513.