Dear Mr. Moul,

Thank you very much for sharing your unforgettable memories of Dr. Koshman. Her musics make us recollect our beloved Dr. Koshman. We still remember Dr. Koshman’s passions and dedication for her research and students. I will share the links with her students and colleagues. Thank you again!

Those of you who knew her mostly from her academic work may not be aware that she was a gifted musician. in 1999 she made some vocal recordings at home just for fun – mostly Christmas music. I’ve uploaded those recordings to my web site and also included the ones used in the memorial service. The music page is at http://www.hq99.net/sherry/music.html.

There were transitions going on back then, Dr. Griffiths left SIS in 2004-05 for UNC, other faculty retired, some were away on sabbatical, so it was not an easy time for doctoral students then either. But in 2005 Dr. Koshman became part of the regular full time faculty there At that time, Dr Amanda Spink was also on the faculty from 2003 til about 2006 or so before she left the School (and her role as head of the doctoral students), Dr. Koshman worked on many projects & publications with her and they both were very active in ASIST. One thing that interested her then was a project I had done at Albany which received an award in 2000 from ASIST. We often talked about projects she was involved with when I saw her, I remember one meeting in her office once when she was telling me about her thesaurus project she was doing. Dr Koshman also was interested in GIS & information visualization & we spoke about the Lancelot manuscripts project that I was helping Dr Alison Stones /Art History dept with since that project was housed in SIS with Ken Sochats/info visualization lab. She never would say you can’t do this or you can’t do that-she was interested to hear about ideas & how to make something better in terms of research/outcomes. I remember her also as a faculty member who was always teaching. She was a steady presence with her teaching each term. She made herself always available to talk to students & to advise them. When I think back to her esp in 2004-2006 she seemed very happy to be there, eager to take on projects/teach & advise students, she was always busy with things & was a rather independent spirit there, by this I mean she was very much her own person-unique & talented in many ways. Those that got to know her more, knew this about her. I had last been in touch with her by email about a year or so ago before her duties were re-assigned to other faculty, even though she was not well, she remained always responsive and engaged on students’ behalf and their future. She was a very quiet person, but cared about her work, her teaching and her ability to make a difference.

Since I am away from the school now for many years, I was unaware of her health problems & very sad to hear of her sudden passing, esp at such a young age. She had an immense capacity for helping other people and always had a big smile when you saw her. I’ll always be grateful to her for her kindness, her example as a professional/mentor, and will remember her fondly as someone who has helped so many students. My deepest sympathy to her husband, her two daughters, her parents/family, she will be missed by so many.

What struck me most about Sherry was her consummate professionalism. She had her priorities straight in terms of work/life balance. She respected others’ work. She was frank and courteous in her assessments. She was very pragmatic which gave her a flexibility of intellect many do not have.

She valued her appointment as Chair of the LIS doctoral program. The comments here show that her brief tenure in the post has left a profound legacy. Requiescat in pace, dear lady.