Tatyana Prokofyeva

Tatyana Prokofyeva, age 68, of Lubbock, TX passed away peacefully on October 22, 2020. A private ceremony will be held at 6:00 PM Central Time on Thursday, October 29^th, 2020 at Lake Ridge Chapel. The service will be live-streamed and available for 30 days here on this page, , where you are encouraged to sign the virtual guestbook and share memories and expressions of sympathy.Tatyana was born on January 6, 1952, in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia to Ivan and Sofya Prokofyev. This is where she spent her youth until age 17 when she moved to St. Petersburg, Russia to pursue her studies in Physics at the University of Leningrad. She graduated in 1975 with a Masters in Physics, and then later pursued her Doctorate in Physics and Math in 1987.She gave birth to her first daughter, Polina, in 1971 while also juggling University studies and working at the Nuclear Physics Institute near St. Petersburg doing research on nuclear radiation. She worked there for 20 years as a researcher until 1996, and in that time collaborated with Fermilab scientists from the United States and published multiple research papers.In 1981 she met her husband Sergey and got married that same year after falling madly in love. Six years later she gave birth to her second daughter, Alina, in St. Petersburg.During her time in Russia, Tatyana loved spending her time with family & friends and vacationing near water when she could.In the early 90s, Sergey was invited to work in the United States as a researcher. So in 1996, Sergey, Tatyana, and Alina moved to America to live in Ft. Collins, Colorado where Sergey worked at Colorado State University. A year later, the family moved to Lubbock, Texas, as Sergey’s work led him to Texas Tech University.Tatyana also briefly worked at Texas Tech at the Department of Physics as a researcher, lab tech, and lecturer. In 2000, she transitioned to a position as an engineer with X-Fab in Lubbock to work with microchips, and she spent the next 18 years there until she retired.Tatyana most loved traveling all over the world with family and friends, cruising with Sergey, singing and being with her lady friends in a local Lubbock barbershop chorus called the “Pride of West Texas Show Chorus”, cooking & enjoying amazing food (especially with family & friends and special occasions), growing beautiful plants & flowers, playing the piano, and savoring the simple joys and moments of life.Before she passed, she reminisced with her daughter Alina, that her most favorite parts of life were “love” and “being by the sea/ocean”.Her family will always remember her as a beautiful, strong, and brilliant woman who had a drive and heart like no other.She was preceded in death by her parents, Ivan and Sofya.Close relative survivors include her loving husband Sergey; younger brother Alexander and his wife Tatyana; daughters Polina and Alina and their husbands Andrei and Dan; and grandson Timofei.