Award-winning environmental scientist who was devoted to her family, charitable endeavors and service

GARLAND, Texas — Sharon Fancy Parrish passed away on December 4, 2024 at her home in Garland, Texas after fighting for months to recover from a stroke compounded by her muscular dystrophy. She spent her 70th birthday in a long-term acute care hospital, but had expressed a strong desire to return home, where she passed peacefully in her sleep with her devoted husband and sons caring for her.

Mother, wife, friend, boss, public servant, and community volunteer, Sharon wore several hats and dedicated her life to her friends and family, her Catholic faith, her love of nature, and to charity work.

Sharon Ann Fancy was born November 17, 1954, at Stoneham Hospital and raised in North Reading, Massachusetts by loving parents Barbara and Lyman Fancy, who instilled in her a strong work ethic and sense of responsibility to community service. While attending North Reading High School she was a library assistant; her favorite leisure activity was reading novels. In high school she volunteered with the special needs program, then worked in a nursing home through college, roles she said prepared her to care for her son, Matthew, who also had myotonic dystrophy.

In 1976 she received her BA in Biology at Boston University. There, her field research brought her out into the landscapes and waterways of New England, for which she had such a deep admiration. That is why the aquatic ecology program at Oklahoma State University (Go Pokes!) seemed like the right place to continue her graduate studies. Little did she know that was where she would meet the love of her life, David Parrish. They were married on May 20, 1978, at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, in North Reading.

Together, Sharon and David would build a life in Dallas, Texas, having both accepted job offers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6. In 1979 she started her career at the U.S. EPA, serving thirty-five and a half years until her retirement in 2014. She worked in Water Quality Programs as an environmental scientist, protecting the rivers, lakes and coastal waters of Texas and the surrounding states. She was awarded many honors including two gold medals (printed on the finest recycled paper) from the U.S. EPA, but she was particularly proud of her Federal Executive Board award recognizing her management of the Underground Injection Control Team in 1989-1990. Upon her retirement, the regional administrator proclaimed that Sharon’s “contributions to ensuring longer, healthier lives for the people of this country are indeed estimable.”

Sharon always had a passion for service and charity; she kept meticulous records of her charitable donations to numerous organizations and gave every year like clockwork. For her church, St. Rita Catholic Community, she was a CCD Sunday school teacher, volunteered with Parish Partnership, which aided St. Rita’s sister parish, St. Mary of Carmel, and ironed the linen purificators as long as she could, even when the muscle disease made it a struggle. She distributed food with Good Samaritans and the North Texas Food Bank. She mentored young women for the Youth Achievement Foundation. She staffed the front desk and was a butterfly docent for Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. She was also the secretary for the Oakridge Neighborhood Association. In recognition of many years of dedication, she received the Community Service Award from the DFW Federal Executive Board in 2012, as well as the Champions Who Care Award from the Achievement Center of Texas, the special needs daycare that her son attended.

Sharon was a fierce and resilient woman, who would not take guff from anyone. When she set her mind to something, she was determined to see it through, no matter the challenges. Maybe her most cherished role was that of an enthusiastic and dedicated wife and mother. She and David started a family in 1983 and welcomed their first son into their lives. In 1987 she felt called to foster another son from Vietnam through Catholic Charities, and soon after learned she was pregnant with twins. Many people told her that continuing to foster while caring for her other children would be too much to take on, but despite having to lay her baby girl to rest and discovering her baby boy had special needs, she was not deterred from her commitment to family. She raised three loving boys and ensured they stayed bonded with both sides of the family in Oklahoma and Massachusetts, who they visited yearly. Sharon was the rock that kept them organized and nurtured, she was their strongest defender, and she will be sorely missed.

If we can learn anything from Sharon, it would be to demand excellence from yourself and others but be forgiving and gracious when we fall short (she tried), and most importantly just offer a helping hand to make the world a better place.

Sharon is preceded in death by her children Jessica Leigh Parrish and Matthew Everett Parrish, parents Barbara and Lyman Fancy, in-laws Ramona and Jack Parrish, and siblings James Fancy and Lauren Fancy Wissler. She is survived by her husband David Arthur Parrish, sons Jared Walker Parrish and Viet Phuong Bui, grandchildren Jimmy Bui, Alex Bui and his wife Bailey, brother Lyman “Butch” Fancy and his wife Maria, sister-in-law Cheryl Fancy, and many more in-laws, nieces, nephews, cousins and their families.

Visitation for family and friends was held on Wednesday, December 11 at the Restland Funeral Home in Dallas, Texas and her funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Rita’s Catholic Community in Dallas, Texas on Thursday, December 12 at noon followed by a graveside service at Restland Cemetery, Dallas, Texas, at 2 p.m. and a reception at the family home in Garland, Texas from 3-6 p.m.

In lieu of flowers the Parrish family suggests donations in memory of Sharon Fancy Parrish to one of the following causes:

• Muscular Dystrophy Association: https://mda.donordrive.com/team/23571 (click SUPPORT US)

• Boston University, The Thomas H. Kunz Fund: https://www.bu.edu/biology/people/kunzfund/

• Oklahoma State University, “Sterling Burks Endowed Memorial Fund in Integrative Biology” https://secure.osugiving.com/s/giving (search Discover … Passions for “Burks”)

• or a charity of one’s choice.