Acting chair of the Department of Art, Sherry Edwards, died Sunday, January 17, 1999 after fighting a brief battle with cancer.

Edwards joined the Appalachian Faculty after earning her bachelor's degree in art education from Townson State College and a master of fine arts degree from Ohio University.

Commissioned for one of her many sculptures, Edwards created the bronze sculpture of Appalachian's first President B.B. Dougherty. She left this campus with several sculptures that she will be remembered by. Her work has been shown across the country, from Washington to Arizona.

Sherry was an outspoken advocate of sculpture, who began teaching at Appalachian State in 1969. She developed the sculpture program here and was acting Chair at the time of her death.

During her thirty years at ASU she completed several commissions for the school including bronze busts of three chancellors. At the time of her death she was working on a bronze sculpture of Daniel Boone, which will be completed and installed.

Sherry hosted two conferences at the University and was an energetic and outgoing member of the Tri State family. "Sherry Edwards was a woman of uncommon strength and vision who loved teaching art only a little less than she loved her children," said colleague Robin Martindale.

"Sherry's ingenuity and perseverence were the engines that drove the sculpture program in the art department. Her dedication to her craft and her students was the fuel that fed the art department and the University as a whole. Sherry has left us a wonderful legacy of sculpture that will never let us forget her."

Photographs by Mike Romenger

Designed by Shane O'Brien