11/28/2001
Eleanor D. Sticelber Ott began her career teaching math to elementary
students. By the time she retired in 1985, she had been president of Eastfield
College for eight years.Mrs. Ott, 74, died Sunday when her aorta ruptured while
she was riding in her family car in Dallas.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Laurel Land Funeral Home, 6000 S. R.L.
Thornton Freeway in Dallas. Visitation will be a 1 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral
home. She will be buried in Laurel Land Cemetery. "She was a leader," said her daughter, Katy Barrilleaux of
Duncanville. "She had a way of making people feel important. She had a way
of giving people enough knowledge that they could then go on and be leaders
themselves." Born in Coffeyville, Kan., Mrs. Ott grew up in Houston, where she graduated
from high school. In 1949, Mrs. Ott received a bachelor's degree in English from Rice
Institute, now Rice University. She worked briefly for a Houston consulting
geophysicist before marrying and raising three children. In 1962, she began a new career as a Dallas substitute teacher. She soon was
hired full time to teach math in elementary school and then algebra in junior
high. She then worked as a counselor at Kimball High School for three years. In 1968, she earned a master's of arts degree in counseling and guidance from
Southern Methodist University. Mrs. Ott then joined the Dallas County Community College District, where she
held several positions, including counselor at Mountain View College and dean of
student services at Richland College. She was named vice president of
instruction at Eastfield College, where she became president in October 1978.
She retired in 1985. Her junior college ties led to community service. She was on the Goodwill
Industries board of directors from 1981 to 1986. She was president of the
Mesquite Chamber of Commerce in 1981 and served on the boards of directors of
Texas Commerce Bank Casa Linda branch and Mesquite Memorial Hospital. In retirement, Mrs. Ott created a small business, designing, weaving and
selling clothing that she liked to call wearable art, which she sold at shows
throughout the state as well as in Santa Fe, N.M., and Colorado Springs, Colo. "She was very artistic," her daughter said. "She painted, she
made marble paper, her whole life was doing art-type things." Mrs. Ott was a member and past president of the Craft Guild of Dallas. In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Ott is survived by her husband, Eugene G.
Ott of Dallas; her son, Randy Ott of Austin; another daughter, Shelley Williams
of Kingwood, Texas; her sister, Elaine Pieterse of Houston; and four
grandchildren.