The Longwood University community is saddened by the loss of Paige Epps, computer operations manager in Information & Instructional Technology Services (IITS). Epps, 46, passed away from an apparent heart attack on Sunday, Feb. 3 at Danville Regional Medical Center.
Epps’ funeral service will take place today (Feb. 6) at 11 a.m. at Puckett Funeral Home in Farmville, with internment at Trinity Memorial Gardens immediately following.
Epps has left a huge personal and professional legacy behind her. She is survived by her husband Tony, her sons Jacob, Josh and Jack; her father Gene Southall and his wife Lois; and many other family members and friends. She also had another family in IITS, as she had worked at the university since 1999.
”A big part of my world is gone,” said Kim Redford, director of User Support Services. Epps and Redford worked with each other for 13 years at Longwood, but they were colleagues for 13 years before that at The Carpet House in Farmville, a business Epps’ uncle operates.
Redford said the IITS staff has unanimously agreed that the words they would use to describe Epps the most are “sweet” and “hilarious.”
Epps’ passing has been difficult for the entire staff, who spent a great deal of time with her and viewed her as an integral part of their work family. “We work as a really close team,” said Redford. “We are an open environment, and the staff out here, they work together constantly and communicate and coordinate things together eight hours a day ... so we’re really, really sad.”
“Even though we are a technology help desk, our focus is on customer service and communications, and we are really just putting the customer first. [Epps] absolutely had that mentality,” said Redford. “She had amazing customer service skills, and people would call and ask for her by name sometimes.”
Redford has spoken with many former IITS student workers since Epps’ passing who are
“devastated” and plan on attending her funeral services. While Epps primarily worked with faculty and staff, she spent time working with students as well. “I think that her legacy is really her relationship with the students,” said Redford.
Crystal Thibault, computer operations technician, worked with Epps for the entirety of Epps’ time at Longwood. “There wasn’t a day that went by when I worked with Paige that she didn’t make me laugh at some point,” she said.
Thibault described Epps as an extremely “family oriented” woman who loved her three sons. Thibault said Epps was a regular attendee of football games at Fuqua School, where her son attends school and plays football. “She would leave and drive for hours and hours to drive to any of his games,” she added.
Thibault feels that she has lost a member of her family. “It’s going to be impossible to find someone to fill that void that comes up to who she was to everybody,” she said.
“When you lose someone unexpectedly, it makes you look at your own [self] and realize you need to be living for the day and enjoying yourself and being happy and content in all that you do,” said Thibault. “She was very happy. She liked her job, she loved her family and, you know, she loved the people she worked with ... so I think that will definitely carry through for years and years.”
JaBari Scott, Blackboard administrator and computer operations manager, said he and Epps had both a strong personal and professional relationship. “We shared many commonalities with our life experiences, but here at work, we sat close to one another so I could always look around, and there she was.”
Scott said Epps genuinely loved her job. “She definitely exemplified true customer service at its best because she loved people; she loved to help people in any way that she could and no task was too menial or too small,” he said.
Whether one needed assistance with a personal or technology-related issue, Scott said Epps was always willing to help. “If you were a person, Paige Epps loved you, and she was going to make sure she helped you out no matter what you needed or what your issue was.”
