I am saddened to see this news, as in addition to sharing her wisdom in her courses, Sharon gave me the gift of a kind act at a difficult time in my life -- and it kept me in the course and program to achieve my aim of an academic career, too.

I admired her immensely for that and more, and in my teaching, I had many occasions to remember her example, of the importance of a kind act on a single day in a student's life that can make a lifelong difference.

-- Gen McBride