Christina Elliott Sorum (2005)

The sudden passing of Christina Elliott Sorum shocked the many members of this Association who had followed her career from her undergraduate days at Wellesley from which she graduated in 1967 and her distinguished graduate career at Brown, where she received her doctorate in 1975. She had been a member of CAMWS from 1975 to 1981, during her tenure at North Carolina State. Although she moved to Union College in 1982, she maintained her contact with the Association during her rise from chairman of the department at Union to Frank Bailey Professor of Classics and in 1994, Dean of Arts and Sciences, in 2000 dean of faculty and vice president of academic affairs in 2000. Her articles on Sophocles and Euripides were insightful and clear, her teaching gained her awards at both N.C. State and Union, as well as a Pew Memorial Trust Research Grant. She was the dean we all would wish for our colleges. She said, "Faculty must participate in their disciplines outside the walls of the College, and we deans must provide the opportunity for them to do good scholarship and research." May 16, 2005, brought a far too early end to such an enlightened administrator.