Michelle Laseur

Michelle LaSeur, 72, passed away at home on June 26, 2022. A longtime resident of Conroe, TX, she was born in Elizabeth, NJ on October 21, 1949 to Nell and Harvey LaSeur, the second of three children. Her father worked in the petroleum industry and she spent most of her childhood in Caripito, Estado Monágas, Venezuela, with the jungle as her backyard. Michelle became fluent in Spanish while living in Venezuela. She came back to the United States to attend high school and graduated from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in New Jersey. During her teens and early twenties Michelle became interested in peace advocacy and a lifelong fan of the Rolling Stones.

Michelle began college at Boston University when she was only 16. She graduated with a BA in Comparative Religion in 1971 and went on to study Elementary Education at the New School of Behavioral Studies in Education at the University of North Dakota, an innovative, child-centered teacher-training program. She taught Sioux children on the Fort Totten Reservation in North Dakota and earned BS and MEd degrees from the New School.

Michelle spent most of her career teaching elementary school and bilingual kindergarten classes, often in high-poverty schools. She taught in Houston’s Fifth Ward in the 1970s, was a kindergarten educator in Conroe from 1981-1991, and was a bilingual kindergarten teacher in Aldine and Austin in the early and mid-1990s. During her teaching career Michelle observed changes in children’s play and a growing concern over violence in public schools. Her deepening interests in peace education and conflict resolution led her to enroll in a PhD program at the University of Texas at Austin.

While Michelle was a doctoral student she worked as a graduate teaching assistant for 200-student classes in Play and Child Development and supervised student teachers. She wrote her doctoral dissertation, “Francelia Butler’s Contribution to Peace Education: Peace Games, A Curriculum for Teaching Peace Through Play,” under the mentorship of her beloved advisor, Dr. Stuart Reifel. Dr. LaSeur graduated with her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, Early Childhood in 2005. Her publications include academic articles in The International Journal of Humanities and Peace and Peace Review. She also wrote a non-academic book, It Don’t Mean Nothing, about Vietnam War veterans. Shortly before her death Michelle was petitioning the government to honor its promises to allow Afghan military translators and their families to immigrate to the United States.

Michelle loved animals and showed Belgian Tervuren sheepdogs at dog shows. She had a particular affinity for dolphins, and used Dolphin as her online name for many years. In the last two decades of her life Michelle nurtured a series of rescued and inherited cats.

Her parents and her older sister, Sandra Leigh LaSeur, precede Michelle in death. Her brother, Harvey Stearns LaSeur and his spouse Kathleen survive her, as well as her nephews Stearns and Christopher LaSeur and great-nephew Harvey Stearns LaSeur V. Her aunt by marriage, Bobbie Lamp, her cousin Rhonda Williams—to whom she was especially close—and numerous other cousins likewise survive her. Michelle leaves behind several longtime friends who were like sisters to her, including Kathleen Mackay, Lorraine Sellitto, Keatha Falls, and Maria Beach. Her housemate, Joel Sinor, and their cat, Buddy, also survive her.

A memorial service will be held on Monday, July 25 at 2 pm at First Christian Church, Conroe, where Michelle occasionally served as a translator for their Food Pantry clients.