BERNARD D. "BERNIE" YANCEY was a very special
Ranger High School graduate in 1969 even though he
lived to be only 42. He was the son of Bernard
Dacree(Ike) and Edythe Margaret Weekes Yancey of
Ranger, TX.
He was born Jan. 30, 1951 at Clifton, TX. He had
one sister, Deborah Yancy Roe (RHS-1971), who now
lives in Stephenville. Bernie married his wife,
Linda Chisolm of Cisco, in May of 1972 and they
had two children, Susan & Lydia.
Bernie died April 15, 1993 of a heart attack at
Colorado Springs, CO. Linda Yancey and her family
reside in Austin where she works at the University
of Texas, McCombs School of Business, Department
of Accounting.
After Ranger High School, Bernie earned three degrees
at the University of Texas: B.A., Mathematics with
honors, May 1973; M.A., Psychology, August 1975 and
his Ph.D., May 1980. Besides attending UT and earning
his degrees, Bernie worked full time at the Dean of
Students Office and for the Vice President’s Office.
He accepted a position as Director of Institutional
Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder in
September 1987. He later worked on Special Projects
for the budget office at CU and in his spare time he
also worked for the Texas Rural Legal Aid Society down
in the Valley-he was an expert witness on some EEOC
cases.
Bernie was very adept with mathematics, especially
statistics, & most of his work related to institutional
research; for example, “What was the attritional rate
of minorities, Why they drop out or do poorly in college,
How did urban versus rural students do in college
settings, etc.
On April of 1993, Bernie and a colleague were on a
fact-finding trip to CU at Colorado Springs. They were
preparing to leave the hotel and Bernie went back to his
room to check on something. He did not return to the car
and the colleague became concerned and went looking for
him and found him collapsed on the sidewalk. He died of
a heart attack at 42.
Because Bernie was very interested in genealogy, his wife
had his body flown back to Eastland and he was buried in
Alameda Cemetery near Ranger beside his parents where many
of his other relatives are buried as well.