{"id":3613,"date":"2011-04-13T16:25:55","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T22:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/?p=3613"},"modified":"2011-04-13T16:25:55","modified_gmt":"2011-04-13T22:25:55","slug":"laura-hershey-83-a-determined-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/2011\/04\/laura-hershey-83-a-determined-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Laura Hershey \u201983: A Determined Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Laura Hershey \u201983<\/strong> was an acclaimed poet, essayist and artist, a passionate advocate and activist, an enthusiastic world traveler, and a loving friend, partner, and mother. Her 20-page curriculum vitae is stuffed with accomplishments. And she did it all from a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

At 2, Hershey was diagnosed with a form of muscular dystrophy but packed a lot of living into the 48 years before her death in November 2010.<\/p>\n

That loss still resonates at CC, particularly among the professors who rejoiced in her quick mind, generous heart, and determined spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was just exceptionally curious and engaged,\u201d said Dean Susan Ashley, who taught history at the time. \u201cShe was the kind of person who could really fuel discussions because she listened to other people and she wasn\u2019t the least bit reticent about taking on ideas. There was a kind of frankness that was really striking.\u201d<\/p>\n

As History Professor Peter Blasenheim grew to know Hershey, his respect blossomed.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had extraordinary intellect and extraordinary compassion,\u201d Blasenheim said. \u201cShe took on human challenges and approached them in a universal way.\u201d<\/p>\n

After earning her bachelor of arts in history, Hershey attained a master of fine arts in creative writing from Antioch University. In 1992, she returned to CC to accept an honorary doctorate of humane letters.<\/p>\n

During the opening convocation, she was lauded for being \u201camong the most active and most effective advocates of civil rights for people with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dedicated academic also enjoyed the lighter side of student life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds cliched, but she lived life to the fullest. She loved to party and loved to have a good time,\u201d Blasenheim recalled.<\/p>\n

In the early 1980s, there were few provisions for wheelchair access on or near campus. When Hershey arrived at a party, strong classmates would tote her and her motorized wheelchair up the steps.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that is a metaphor for Hershey\u2019s approach to life. There was never a question of whether <\/em>she\u2019d actively participate \u2013 she\u2019d figure out a way.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was, at that time, insistent about having access to academic buildings. So she managed, I think, to get people to think about that. And even though the accommodations were reasonably primitive, the college did make it easier for her to get into classroom buildings,\u201d Ashley said.<\/p>\n

History Professor Carol Neel reminisced about how Hershey and her classmates \u201cadopted\u201d Neel, who started teaching at CC when she was 25, much closer to the age of her students than of her colleagues.<\/p>\n

Hershey was \u201cextremely generous,\u201d Neel said. \u201cIt was clear she had a dignity among her peers and among members of the department. For a disabled student to be participating that fully in a normal undergraduate program was absolutely anomalous. I think she broke trail at the college about that. But more importantly, in the imagination of her classmates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The professors often lunched with Hershey, her partner Robin Stephens, and their aides when they traveled from their Englewood home.<\/p>\n

Hershey and Stephens were drawn together through their mutual dedication to the rights of women and the disabled, then realized their feelings went much deeper.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took us five years to declare our love to each other and when we did, our letters crossed in the mail . . .Valentine\u2019s Day, 1990\u2026\u201d Stephens e-mailed from Englewood.<\/p>\n

The couple fought through obstacles to adopt Shannon, the daughter of their hearts. After \u201cmuch advocating and angst,\u201d their adoption of the 14-year-old was finalized in June 2010.<\/p>\n

Stephens is determined to continue the battles she and Hershey waged for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur lives were always and will always be pushing for the rights of oppressed peoples,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Hershey\u2019s advocacy caught the attention of the powers that be in Denver and Washington, D.C.; her extensive writing output culminates in \u201cSpark Before Dark,\u201d a chapbook due out in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe confidence that Laura had was just exceptional,\u201d Ashley said. \u201cShe was so sure about the fact that certain things had to be confronted and she would confront them. That\u2019s where her disability and challenges ended up being the platform for her establishing genuine social change. She was really a person of her time in the sense that she recognized that certain things aren\u2019t right, certain things aren\u2019t just, certain things need to be corrected.\u201d<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t know if Hershey felt her time on Earth would be short and so strived to make every day count. We can be certain, though, that her influence will be felt on campus and beyond for generations to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laura Hershey \u201983 was an acclaimed poet, essayist and artist, a passionate advocate and activist, an enthusiastic world traveler, and a loving friend, partner, and mother. Her 20-page curriculum vitae is stuffed with accomplishments. And she did it all from a wheelchair. At 2, Hershey was diagnosed with a form of muscular dystrophy but packed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-3613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-april-2011","tag-features"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}