Christina E. Sorum, dean of faculty and vice president of academic affairs at Union College, was remembered Thursday as “a life force” who touched colleagues and family alike with her brilliance, generosity and compassion.
A nationally recognized advocate of liberal arts education, Sorum, 61, died Monday at Ellis Hospital after a heart attack.
Family, friends and colleagues remembered her 23-year career and her life during a memorial service at the Union College Memorial Chapel.
“She was an amazing mother. She was my confidant, my comforter and my adviser,” said her only child, Eve Christina Sorum. “She was always quick to criticize herself and praise others.”
Eve Sorum, who resides in Boston, recalled growing up in a home where her mother was a “dynamic, creative, strong woman who always had an interest in the world around her.”
It was a household where “diagramming a sentence was a dinner game.” She said she suffered no ill effects “unless you count my becoming an English professor as a consequence.”
Sorum said she and her mother had maintained daily contact, sharing their joys and sorrows. Their bond was as strong as any mother-daughter connection could be, and “it breaks my heart that my mother will never know any of the children I will have,” she said.
College President Roger Hull began his recollection of Sorum with a simple statement: “I was Christina's colleague.”
He and Sorum, who obtained her bachelor's and doctorate in Greek literature, shared a love of the classics and would often pepper their daily discussions with references to Greek or Roman authors.
“She did not live nearly long enough,” he said, paraphrasing a classic writer.
Other friends, all of them Union College faculty members or administrators, said Sorum was a brilliant administrator who wanted only the best for the college.
“She was the life force of Union College, vivacious and charming. She made people she was with feel special,” said Kimmo Rosenthal, dean for undergraduate education and professor of mathematics.
Suzanne Benack, a psychology department professor, said Sorum had a unique capacity for delight.
Whenever she thinks of Sorum, which is often, she said, “I see her laughing at something with her wonderful, rippling laugh. It was a laugh like clear sparkling water.”
Benack said when she spoke with Sorum, “I felt like a more interesting person and that the world was a more wonderful place.”
Sorum's husband, Paul, said she was a tireless advocate for liberal arts education, as especially practiced in private, residential colleges.
“She, at least partially, had a hand in every major innovation at Union since the 1980s,” he said. “Despite her stresses as a dean, she was happy.”
Sorum moved to Schenectady in 1982 to become chair of the classics department at Union College. She is credited with reviving the department and helping it earn a national reputation.
She became the Frank Bailey Professor in 1992. In 1994, she became dean of arts and sciences and acting dean of faculty in 1999. She became dean of faculty and vice president of academic affairs in 2000.
Sorum grew up in Jacksonville, Ill., and attended Wellesley College. She received her doctorate from Brown University.
She served as a visiting instructor at Union in 1973-74 and then became an assistant professor at North Carolina State University, where she started a classics program in 1975.
Besides her husband and daughter, she is survived by a brother, Jeff Elliott, of Council Bluffs, Iowa.