Gail Teresa Lopes

Gail was the beloved wife of her husband of 34 years, Milton E. Lopes and the mother of two children, Teresa M. Lopes and Dominique E. Lopes-DelGiudice and son-in-law, Andrew P. DelGiudice. She is also the stepmother of Felicia Lopes of Dallas, TX and Thurston J. Lopes of Atlanta, the father of Thurston Jr., Tiffany, Mathew, and Kandra. She is also survived by her sister, Peggy Ann Boone, brother, Arthur Gray III and niece, Victoria Gray as well as several other relatives and friends from Houston, TX, Washington, DC and environs, and Chicago, IL.

A native of Houston, TX, Gail was born January 6, 1947 to Arthur and Margaret (Harper) Gray. She attended Jack Yates High School in Houston and received her BA in Sociology from Xavier University in New Orleans, LA and completed all her course work for a MA in Public Administration from Texas Southern University in Houston. She began her 40-plus year career in Human Resource Management, Consultancy and Development with the Texas Employment Commission and the Urban League of Houston’s various federally funded Man-Power Programs. She also spent four years with Virginia Tech’s Human Resource Office, and joined the comparable Office at the University of Georgia in 1994 from whence she retired in 2016 as a senior benefits counselor.

For many years, Gail was a member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Athens where she served in several capacities as a board member of Catholic Charities, a lector at the 11:30 a.m. Sunday Mass and member of the first group of Christ Renews His Parish (CHRP). For the last several years she has been an active and well-loved member of the Catholic Center at UGA where she served as a lector for the 10 a.m. Sunday Mass and a participant in the Center’s “Monday Night Scripture Study” series and the Dream Group. Not known by many of her friends are her considerable artistic talents, particularly the drawing of intricate patterns of zen-tangle, a Jungian inspired approach to one’s psyche.

She will be remembered for her frank and incisive observations, warm sense of humor, her honesty and her intolerance for injustice and the lack of love for one’s neighbors. Finally, Gail never met a stranger. Her infectious smile and welcoming embrace of all—both those who knew her and those who met her for only a brief moment—will be remembered for a long time. She was one of God’s sweetest and loving creations. She will be missed by family and friends. But we all know that she is in a better place.

Visitation and Rosary will be held Thursday, May 11, 2017 from 6-8 p.m. at Bernstein Funeral Home, 3195 Atlanta Hwy., Athens, GA 30606; 706-543-7373.

The funeral will be Saturday, May 13, 2017 at 11 a.m. at The Catholic Center at UGA, 1344 Lumpkin St., Athens, GA 30605; 706-543-2293.

Interment will be at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Monastery, Honey Creek Woodlands, 2625 GA-212, Conyers, GA 30094.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to The Cancer Foundation of Northeast Georgia, University Cancer & Blood Center, 3320 Old Jefferson Rd., #700, Athens, GA 30607.

Online condolences may be offered at www.bernsteinfuneralhome.com.

Bernstein Funeral Home and Cremation Service is in charge of arrangements.