Obituary of Stanley Shepelwich

Stanley Shepelwich, 98, died on Thursday, September 30, 2021.Stanley Shepelwich was born on February 10, 1923, into a Russian and Polish immigrant family on Fort Worth’s North Side. The youngest of five boys, Stanley remembered from an early age his father, Sam, playing the handsaw with a violin bow and his mother, Josephine, playing the piano. Stanley began piano lessons when he was seven and by twelve, he was playing special services at his family’s church, the Clinton Avenue Baptist Church for Russians and Other Slavic People.A 1941 graduate of North Side High School, Stanley received a Bachelor of Music with a major in organ at North Texas State College and a Master of Musicology from Texas Christian University and pursued postgraduate studies of organ and organ literature in Paris, France. Stanley served as organist, music director and choir director for 68 years in churches throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.Stanley shared his love of music as a private tutor to students, as accompanist for The Texas Boys Choir on their first European tour, and as an instructor at Tarrant County Junior College and Mountain View College. He served as dean of the Fort Worth Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and was a founding member of the Dallas Harpsichord Society. Stanley performed organ concerts throughout Texas, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Indianapolis, London, Cambridge and the Loire Valley, France. As a member of the Society of Watercolor Artists, Stanley was an accomplished visual artist known for his paintings of his native Fort Worth and European travels.Stanley lived in a big and beautiful world and made it the more so by the gifts he shared. He will be remembered well and lovingly missed.Stanley was preceded in death by his parents and his brothers, Edward, J. B., Leon and Louis and by his friend of many years, Jesse Garcia. Survivors include many nieces, nephews, extended family, and close friends.