Obituary of Gloria Nugent Brister

Gloria Nugent Brister, beloved homemaker, retired public school teacher for the Fort Worth ISD, and business owner died March 31, 2023, in a local hospital. 

A memorial service is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, 2023, at Martin Thompson & Son Funeral Home, 6009 Wedgewood Drive, Fort Worth, TX 76133.

A private family graveside service was held at Greenwood Memorial Park, Pineville, LA.

Gloria Brister was born April 10, 1926, in Grant Parish, Louisiana to parents Floyd P. and Vergie W. Nugent.  She was married to the late Dr. C. W. Brister, a noted theological educator; and the mother of one son, Dr. Mark Brister. 

Mrs. Brister graduated from Louisiana College, Pineville, LA, in 1947 with a double major in Chemistry and Home Economics.  She received the M.Ed. degree from Texas Christian University in 1973, and did post-graduate work at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York; the University of London; and New Orleans and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminaries.

In sharing her husband’s educational, missional, and pastoral work, Mrs. Brister served as a Bible teacher, family counselor, and missionary educator in more than eighty countries of the world.  For several years she diagnostic tested missionary children for the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (now IMB).

Noted for her ministry of hospitality as a homemaker, Mrs. Brister’s career spanned more than half a century as a teacher in Louisiana and Texas public schools, a curriculum consultant for the Louisiana Department of Education, a math consultant for the Fort Worth ISD, and as the owner of a private import business, “Patterns for Living.”  Mrs. Brister was a former member of the Fort Worth Woman’s Club; served on the board of directors of Family Systems Ministries International; and participated in the global ministries of the Baptist World Alliance, McLean, Va.

Listed in Marquis Who’s Who of American Women, Gloria Brister was named a Fellow by the American Institute of Foreign Study in 1974, and studied at the University of London.  She chaired the Fort Worth ISD Mathematics Clinic, 1978-80; served on the Texas Accreditation Team for Elementary schools, 1978-79; participated in the TCU Department of Education Faculty Selection Committee process in 1981-83; and was named President of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Woman’s Club, 1982-83.

A member of Agape Baptist Church in Fort Worth, she was preceded in death by her late husband, C. W. Brister. She is survived by her son, Dr. Mark Brister, his wife, Rhonda; grandsons, Barrett and Austin Brister, three great grandchildren.