Amelia Dawn Coffman
August 30th, 1983 - September 1st, 2022
Amelia Dawn Coffman, of Houston, Texas, beloved daughter of Jimmy and Suzanne Coffman, gained her wings at age 39, on Thursday, September 1, 2022, in Leadville, Colorado.
Born August 30, 1983, in Brownwood, Texas, Amelia attended Early schools from which she graduated in 2001. In childhood, travels with her family allowed her to visit many of the western states and cultivated in her a lifelong love of exploration and curiosity about the world. From her youth, Amelia loved camping and mastering outdoor survival skills. Amelia loved animals and dedicated much of her time and energy to their care. During high school, she enjoyed learning some veterinary skills while working several years for Brown County Animal Clinic. During her university studies in both College Station and Houston, Amelia continued to broaden her knowledge of veterinary medicine by working for Wellborn Road Veterinary Medical Center, Greenway Animal Clinic, and the Atascazoo Animal Hospital. After Hurricane Harvey’s destruction, she selflessly donated her time to serve as the medical escort for a busload of rescued dogs and cats being transported from the devastated Houston area to new placements in Minnesota.
Amelia excelled academically, completing her bachelor’s degree at Texas A&M and her master’s degree in Social Psychology at the University of Houston. Amelia was a gifted writer, speaker, social psychologist, and researcher. She co-authored research-based articles published in scholarly journals, as well as numerous encouraging, inspirational, and educational online articles. At the time of her death, only her dissertation defense remained incomplete toward earning the award of a Ph.D. from the University of Houston.
Amelia and her spouse, Bao, traveled internationally to Vietnam and its surrounding countries. She fell in love with the culture and became very actively involved with Vietnamese groups in the Houston area, learning foundational Vietnamese in addition to the basic Korean language skills she had previously acquired. Unfortunately, Amelia’s enthusiasm for travel was limited several years ago by aggressive medical treatments for a rare auto-immune disease, EGPA. Earlier this year, she chose to stop treatments, trading a shortened life for a life more fully lived; this summer, she embarked on an adventure, boon-docking amid the natural beauty of New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah. A video can be found here
Amelia was infinitely talented and loved to conquer a challenging project. She enjoyed all forms of art, including but not limited to: quilting, photography, woodworking, and even carving seashells. Tools by which she expressed her inherent creativity included, among others, a serger and multiple sewing machines, the flute, clarinet, oboe, piano, and violin. Music and art were non-spoken languages by which she expressed herself.
Amelia dedicated her life to trying to help others, just as she herself had been a grateful recipient of others’ caring actions. At the time of her passing, she was surrounded not only by her human loved ones, but also by her canine traveling companion, Lulu, and by a room full of beautiful floral tributes from persons whose lives she had touched.
Amelia is survived by her spouse, Bao Tran Huynh, her parents, her uncle, several aunts, and a number of cousins.
Always meticulous, she laid the groundwork for her Celebration of Life service, to be held at Georgetown’s Wellspring United Methodist Church on Sept. 25. A family service for her later interment at Bangs Cemetery is pending.
Memorial Service
Sunday, September 25th, 2022
Georgetown’s Wellspring United Methodist Church
6200 Williams Dr.
Georgetown, TX 78633