Jenny was active in the College of Human Sciences’ Student Council and served as a College of Human Sciences Ambassador. She also loved being a Pi Phi. “The core values of Pi Phi — integrity, lifelong commitment, honor and respect, personal and intellectual growth, philanthropic service to others and sincere friendship — read like a personal handbook for Jenny,” says Shannon Cloyes Phillips, a 1996 Pi Phi pledge sister who graduated with Jenny from Edmond Santa Fe High School.
Jenny Goodpasture Stiegler, third from right, with her 1996 Pi Phi pledge sisters during their senior year in 2000. From left are Shannon Cloyes Phillips, Melody Freeman Hunt, Angie Collier Gottlieb, April Hofstadter Shiflett, Stephanie Brown Undernehr, Summer DeHart Caldwell, Jenny Goodpasture Stiegler, Somer Ray Reppert and Amy Puckett Backus.
2003 Sigma Chi golf tournament participants include, from left front: Scott Moorad, Brett Batson, Rocky Moore and Rodney Shewey. From back left are Darren Hightower, Jason Martens, Eric Stiglets, Chris Stiegler, Casey Bell, Brett Allred, Chris Jones and David Stricklin.
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“We had so many good times and good conversations,” says Phillips, who graduated in 2000 with double majors in public relations and family relations and child development. “We could lean on each other if something was bothering us.” After Jenny’s death, her pledge class honored her by planting a redbud tree on the sorority lawn and establishing an annual Pi Phi scholarship in her name. “Jenny’s favorite color was purple,” Phillips says. “We think planting the purple-flowering state tree in her honor is a perfect fit.” Backus says Jenny depended on scholarships, and her friends believe she would be honored by a tribute that will help others.
Jenny loved to write letters and do creative projects for her friends. “Her letters were amazing,” says April Hofstadter Shiflett, another high school classmate and pledge sister who graduated from OSU in 2000 with a degree in elementary education. “They were things you kept because she said so much in them. She had a unique way of sharing her thoughts and her love for others.” After enrolling in the MBA program, Jenny took Matthew Gilley’s strategic management class and later worked as his graduate assistant. “Although I had graduate assistants every year, Jenny clearly stood out as the best. It was a true pleasure to work with her,” says Gilley, who now holds an endowed chair in business ethics at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. “No matter how lengthy — and frankly, sometimes quite boring — the task, Jenny always tackled it with enthusiasm and a smile.” Everyone admired Jenny for her kindness and grace, he says. “I could tell right away she was a special young woman who would do wonderful things with her life, which she obviously did,” Gilley says. “I remember her sitting in my office talking so happily about Chris and what she hoped would be a long life together. I know Jenny must have found a deep sense of fulfillment in the life she and Chris made together.”
more success in arkansas The couple married on Sept. 27, 2003. Soon after, Bath and Body Works recruited Jenny to its Fayetteville, Ark., store, where she began district manager training.