Educator, writer and performer Sally Rae Speken Gass, a native of Pueblo, passed away on July 21, 2020 at the age of 86.
A private memorial service at Babi Yar Memorial Park, livestreamed on Zoom, took place on July 26. Rabbi Joe Black officiated.
Born in Pueblo, the only child of Jessie Esther Greenberg and Herman Speken, Mrs. Gass was a member of a family with “immigrant-born high achievers in the physical and biomedical sciences.”
She graduated as valedictorian of her class at Pueblo Central High School and was a Boettcher Scholar at CU. She transferred to Washington University where she earned a BA, summa cum laude, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
She went on to teach in schools in Arlington, Va. and two cities in Texas.
She married architect Alan Golin Gass on Dec. 18, 1960.
In DPS, she taught at Gust and Knight elementary schools, and became the music teacher at the latter, despite her lack of formal musical training. At Barnum, Stevens and Carson schools and in parochial schools, she taught music and drama. She went on to obtain a Master of Music Education at CU, with highest honors.
She wrote integrated arts curricula and helped develop a music curriculum for hearing handicapped students.
Mrs. Gass worked for the State Mutual Assurance Company, writing, directing and performing in musical satires of the insurance businessin Estes Park, Phoenix and Denver.
She wrote and directed “Gridiron” events for Denver media organizations in 1954, 1976, 1978 and 1988 and was on the volunteer board that formed the Colorado International School of the Arts, later the Denver School of the Arts.
Mrs. Gass acted and sang in productions of the Empire Lyric Opera, the Bonfils Theater, the Temple Sinai Players and in productions at Temple Emanuel. She wrote study guides for the DCPA.
Her family said in a statement: “Those who perhaps thought that they knew Sally well . . . were certainly unaware of the lifelong demon that haunted her. . . . Sally was continuously troubled by deep depression and feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. She was later diagnosed with bipolar disease, the demon that plagued her for her entire life, depriving her of the ultimate enjoyment of her brilliance and success.”
Mrs. Gass is survived by her husband and daughter, Alan Golin Gass and Dana Merrill Brown (Peter); her grandson, Michael Dylan Greenker; and a number of close cousins.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Denver Architecture Foundation, Denver Public Library, Temple Emanuel or Denver Art Museum.
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