Sandra Lee (Shaw) Courter
October 8, 2014

"Deeply saddened by her passing but rejoicing in the knowledge that she is now in the presence of the Lord! Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43)." While Sandy will be greatly missed, she will never be forgotten! May her spirit of optimism, love and cheerfulness live on in the lives of her family and all those whom she touched. "

"I was shocked to learn of Sandy's passing, and I wish her family peace. She was a wonderfully kind and helpful person that gave me a lot of great feedback and ideas over the years. She was always a smiling and friendly person to run into on campus."

"Dr.Sandy Courter was a warm, smart, energetic lady. I first became acquainted with her when I helped with the College of Engineering's Science, Engineering Education Scholars Program that she managed, in which I participated for a half-dozen years. Then she became involved in ASEE's ERM Division, where she served with distinction. Lately, she was named an ASEE Fellow. The world has lost a dedicated, talented, classy lady. We are the poorer for her passing."

"I just learned of Sandy's passing. We were good friends back in our child-bearing years at the College of Engineering. Our oldest children were born a day apart. I have read the tributes here and appreciate how well others have articulated Sandy's accomplishments, but more importantly, the person she was. We could all see it and were the benefactors of her giving nature, generosity, and that smile. I think she is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. It is so hard to have her taken from us. Bob and kids, our thoughts are with you. We will miss her but will keep her memory alive. Even though I haven't seen Sandy in quite a while, I will never forget her."

"I was saddened to hear of Sandy' s death. Growing up in the same small town and church I have wonderful memories of Sandy's kindness and of her family. I hope their faith sustains her family during this difficult time. My thoughts and prayers go out to you all."

"Like many others I was the beneficiary of Sandy's help which I valued very much. Sandy and her students trialed my book on Engineering Education from which I gained an enormous amount of information. It was wonderful to be in her company. May God be with her."

"I will miss Sandy. My path to engineering education research was born with Sandy many years ago. She walked the path I also try to encourage with my students. She always provided me opportunities to explore my own interests while also contributing to the community around me in significant ways. She was always encouraging, and she highlighted strengths of what I was able to do while ever so subtly planting seeds for my future growth. Many thanks to a family and friends who helped make Sandy the wonderful person and mentor that she was to me and many others."

"Sandra was an inspiring leader of the engineering practice investigation team at UW which played a vital part in helping with our own research in Australia. She and Kevin Anderson, with colleagues, helped by providing evidence that technical coordination activity is a predominant aspect of engineering practice in the USA, like our research showed that it was in Australia, India< Brunei and Pakistan. For that, particularly for taking up engineering practice research, I will always be grateful. The results have now come together in a book, and Sandra's work is referenced in the book, as shown below. With sympathy and best wishes to family and collagues. James Trevelyan The University of Western Australia Perth Australia Anderson, K. J. B., & Courter, S. S. (2008, October 25-28). Work in Progress - Aligning Educational Experiences with Ways of Knowing Engineering: Understanding the Engineering Profession. Paper presented at the 38th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Saratoga Springs, New York, USA. Anderson, K. J. B., Courter, S. S., McGlamery, T., Nathans-Kelly, T. M., & Nicometo, C. G. (2010). Understanding engineering work and identity: a cross-case analysis of engineers within six firms. Engineering Studies, 2(3), 153-174. doi: 10.1080/19378629.2010.519772 Courter, S. S., & Anderson, K. J. B. (2009, October 18 - 21). First-year Students as Interviewers: Uncovering What It Means to Be an Engineer. Paper presented at the 39th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, San Antonio, Texas, USA. "

"Thank you Sandy for all you gave to the faculty, staff and students of the College of Engineering. Your enthusiasm and guidance accelerated the innovation in educational approaches in the College. Your smile and energy will be missed!"

"I will miss Sandy's generous and caring spirit, which graced the Engineering Centers Building, on the UW campus, in the broader Madison community and beyond. She was the host and primary sponsor for our junior faculty coffee hours, a friend and supporter when I was struggling to raise young children while on the tenure track, and a tireless promoter of a scholarly approach to engineering education. She never missed an opportunity to introduce good people to one another and share good news. My thoughts go out to her children, of whom she was enormously proud, and her husband, whom she spoke of often. She led a blessed life and I am thankful to have been a part of it."

"I am very sad to hear about the passing away of Sandy. She was a wealth of knowledge and was an inspiration for many. We will miss her wisdom and may her soul rest in peace. "

"I am saddened by the news of her death because I got an e-mail from her less than a month ago. She sent me well wishes for my work in UMN STEM, to which she helped me connect and start. She was warm and upbeat. Sandy will be remembered by her kind and respectful manner toward others, her willingness to help others, and her role model as an exceptional teacher, researcher, and colleague. "

"Sandy was an important part of why I entered into engineering education. She was a kind, welcoming soul who gladly took me under her wing when I was just a graduate student. Without people like her in my life I may never had have the courage to follow the path I am on today. Thank you Sandy, we'll miss you."

"Sandy was my mentor when I was a recipient of the ASEE ERM Apprentice Faculty Grant in 2007. Lucky me! I not only did I get to go to the conference in Hawaii, but I met Sandy for the first time. She heard that I had been admiring the beautiful orchid leis that were sold on the beach, and bought one for me- "christening" me with it when she intro ducted me to the ERM community at the Brouhaha. What a thoughtful and welcoming gesture that embodies her spirit."

"I was so sad to hear of Sandy's death. She was a great colleague and a dedicated engineering educator. We all learned a great deal from her and will miss her quiet wisdom."

"Sandy was a wonderful inspiration and pioneer to engineering education research. I will miss her."

"Sandy was my entree into engineering education. My dad called her office, blind, one wintry February day, and Sandy was kind enough to meet with me, a lowly undergrad, to talk about engineering education. At the end of that meeting, as I recall, I had a summer job - to come back, and help work on the Science and Engineering Education Scholars Program that Michael Loui also remembers. Through that summer job, I connected with the Foundation Coalition, a network of schools striving to improve engineering education with support from NSF, and through that I have met so many colleagues with whom I still work today. Sandy then introduced me to Sarah Pfatteicher, Jen Kushner and Maggie Tongue, special mentors each one, and who remain as friends - I am so grateful for those introductions. Indeed, her work introducing engineering education - both content and colleagues - to me helped direct me to focus my PhD on engineering education - I am now a tenured faculty member in engineering education at Purdue, so I am grateful for her investment in me. I found Sandy to be a wholeheartedly generous soul, one who would cheerfully introduce you to anyone and everyone, who was your kindest advocate and wished you welcome at any opportunity. She was relentlessly optimistic in her work, and, as Cindy says, a positive force for teaching improvement and engineering education research. I followed her posts on the blog, and later the Tumblr, and find the photos shared there to be just beautiful and tremendously sad. Thank you for sharing them with us. I miss Sandy's calm presence, and her generous good wishes. While she was sick, I took solace knowing she was in Madison in the house she loved, with her family whose she loved fiercely. I send all my and my family's best wishes to her family and friends, along with my most profound gratitude for your having shared Sandy with me and so many others."

"I connected with Sandy in the early 00's as we were both involved in large national efforts to transform engineering education. I have a very clear memory of conversations with her at our national conference in 2003 when we were at the beginning of our projects. She had a long-term vision that was far reaching that was combined with an incredibly positive outlook and an amazing sense of calm. As things would get hectic in my work, I would remember her perspective and try to beam some of her calmness over to Seattle. I always benefited from her wise words when we would meet, and I will miss that."

"As an outreach coordinator, I had the pleasure to work with Sandy. She understood the importance of the College reaching out to women and minorities and assisted me without hesitation in those efforts when some other CAE staff and faculty were not always supportive. Additionally, she collaborated with other faculty to develop coursework to insure that engineering students received a comprehensive education. These goals were understood by many of us who spent much our lives in the COE. She would agree that there is nothing more fulfilling than to see a student develop his/her communication skills along with the technical. She was a pleasure to work with and I know she leaves a void in her family. For so many of us, she will always be remembered fondly. "

"I had the privilege of teaching alongside Sandy in the Technical Communication Program from 1998 to 2007. From Day One, she was a generous and wise colleague, sharing syllabi and lesson plans. Moreover, her generosity continued even after I left UW, for example when I called her a couple of years ago for some advice about a new course I was teaching. Professionally, Sandy was a trailblazer in helping to establish new programs in the College of Engineering to foster better communication, teaching, and learning. She was also a trailblazer as a woman teaching courses and directing a center in the mostly male College of Engineering. But she was not a loud, attention-seeking trailblazer. Instead, she was a quiet, unassuming leader. Throughout her time at UW, she had an amazing ability to draw people from all over campus to work together on programs to improve teaching - at one point winning a prestigious $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation for such efforts. While I have missed Sandy greatly as a colleague since leaving UW, I will miss her friendship even more, as we continued to keep in touch through email, phone calls, and the occasional visit. What a caring person, trustworthy confidante, and good soul. Throughout all of our conversations, I can't remember her ever saying an unkind thing about anyone. In some ways, I think we were destined to be friends. Shortly after we met, we discovered that we had grown up about 15 miles apart in south-central Ohio, which created an immediate bond. Additionally, as parents of children who are roughly the same ages, we had lots in common and lots to talk about on that front too. She was so proud of Andrew, Zachary, and Margaret - what kind of people they have become and what they are accomplishing. And she was delighted with her granddaughter Ainsley. From reading her blog, I could tell that Sandy's family and faith continued to bring her much joy even in times of great sadness. I am thankful to have known her. "

"My strongest memories of Sandy include the ropes course we did together with our first year students where she brought a joy and sense of adventure to teaching. Sandy followed that with introducing One Laptop Per Child to Bethel's after school program on the south side of Madison. " Be willing to try new things,"she told me. I remember us dancing together with the children during a break. Sandy had an adventurous and creative spirit combined with a willingness to reach out to her students and colleagues, and I shall miss her!"

" Madison, Sunday October 12, 2014 Dear Bob, and dear Andrew, AnneMarie and Ainsley, and dear Zach and Margaret! We've been thinking of you and Sandy constantly these days, we are with you in our thoughts and in our prayers. May our Lord and God give you peace and strength in the days and weeks ahead. Sandy is always with you, that we know, she's walking by your side and loving you. She sends her blessings. John and I have known Sandy and Bob ever since we joined Bethel, it seems, way back in 1970. We were sitting on the same side in the pews. We loved it when Sandy and Bob took interest in our children when they were born, and then when our last one, Mark, was about two years old, Andrew appeared in the pews!!! We were absolutely thrilled and happy for the Courters. Bob was the most devoted dad I can imagine, the big bear, i.e. former football player, always holding the little one - no way Andrew would be sent to the nursery. Later, we remember Margaret as a tiny tot, shouting out the Lord's prayer - all the lines - at the top of her voice. In 1983 I began working in "General Engineering". The next fall Sandy joined our group, teaching the Technical Writing course. As you know, for Sandy, useful work was priority. It made her happy to work with a goal and to serve others through teaching and creating new programs. One spring semester, she had to quit in March because Zach was born, on St. Patrick's Day - and what traditions we had at GE on that day - true Irish coffee and cup cakes with shamrocks. So I took over Sandy's sections. That May, we had planned a TC program for the engineers at the Green Bay Power plant and the paper mills. Zach, mind you, you were two months old, well-fed and growing to catch up with your brother. Your mom thought nothing of being tired, and off we trekked up north to Green Bay to co-teach the 2-day seminar. Daddy Bob had to follow with Zach, and do everything for him, except he could not feed him. Sandy would sneak out of the seminar to make sure Zach got his milk. Sandy was devoted to both her work and her family!!! Together with Sandy, I enjoyed the many meetings on Quality Improvement, Teaching Improvement, and other facilitated meetings. We also concocted new ideas. Sandy helped me in establishing the novel Certificate in Technical Communication. We actually were three women from Bethel in the TC progam: Gretchen Schoff, Sandy and I. One day, we stood in the hallway after a long meeting, commenting to each other, 'If only we women could run Engineering, everything would work more smoothly.' Even so, Sandy, developed a knack in bringing people together and making them talk to each other. She was always inclusive and made sure every voice was heard. In the later years, Sandy went on to create and lead the Learning Center in engineering, while I became Director of the TC program. After I retired in 2003, Sandy continued in her career, and occasionally we had lunch together to catch up. I enjoyed those lunches with Sandy. We got to know each other even better and talked about living and family. I learned more about the rainbow. We always caught up on family, we shared about the difficulties of growing up, the trials and joys that young people go through. I was so happy to hear about the great family trip out west, and the regular trips to Ohio. For our children, talking with the Courters in church during their visits to Madison made them feel at home and welcomed. Sandy always was interested and supportive an they loved Bob's silly jokes. Sandy was at the showers for our girls weddings, and Sandy and Bob danced at all three weddings. Bob also took those wonderful photos at our 25th wedding anniversary. Thank you for being there for our family. With the start of the Bethel idea, I had been thinking about the concept of a Luther's Table and invited Sandy to work with us. I knew she wasn't so well but I also knew she'd love the idea and would want to contribute. I still remember the first meeting when we developed our mission statement. It was like in old times in our team course that we co-taught for business students. We used the sticky note approach, were one asks the questions and the other records and posts. It worked like in old times. We developed a cogent mission for the Luther's Table and did very good work in the committee. To mind comes Sandy's beautiful vision for the appearance of this place. This is what she wrote, and of course it reminds of your home on Midtown Road that she loved so deeply: "You're near the Capital Square, specifically walking out of Michelangelo's onto Gilman Street and look north. You see an intriguing new three-story structure. With glass walls, the structure is transparent. You see inter-connecting stairs from one floor to another. You even see an overpass between the parking ramp and the second floor of the new building. You see a spark from what appears to be a fireplace. Yes, the three-story fireplace is positioned such that passersby can see it, be warmed by the thought of it, and welcomed in by those working at Luther's Table. The fireplace is especially nice during our six months of cold weather. But during all seasons, a fireplace provides a natural gathering space." Only a year ago, on Mission Sunday, Sandy wrote out the menu for Luther's Table on the white board at Bethel and obviously enjoyed the realistic enactment of this venue for the Bethel Idea. I continue to hope that we might bring our plans to fruition. Sandy would love it. There were many things Sandy stood for. For me, I admired her creativity and courage to try new and big things, I appreciated her loyalty to people, and willingness to serve and just do it, her warmth. I know she loved her family above all, and she knew our Lord. Our father in heaven, bless Sandy and her dear family and keep them all in your loving care always. There is a line in C.S. Lewis, which we have always cherished because it is true and helps us to live on - Christians never say good bye. Sandy will be with you always. With love, and tears, and prayers, Gisela and John Kutzbach "

"I am so sorry to hear about Sandy. As one of her many, many colleagues at UW-Madison, I came to know her as an energetic, creative soul who was always looking for a better way to accomplish a goal. We were teaching colleagues in the Delta program, and while I soldiered on with my tried-and-true teaching strategies, Sandy was experimenting with distance education and other wild and wooly pedagogical avenues, getting way out ahead of the rest of us, but always with eyes on the future of education. By all accounts, her students loved her. And so did we. Her life ended way too soon. "

"Our memories of Sandy go back to the years when our children were young. Our son, Mike, and Andy became close friends in 1st grade and from then until they graduated, we had connections to the Courter family. Sandy was always one of those moms who made children feel special and was interested in what they were involved in and leaning about in their lives. Always with a smile on her face, she made people feel welcomed in her home. From sports events to piano lessons to sleepovers, everything was more fun when she was around. Sharing the holiday time was always a treat in her home, with her huge, beautiful tree and interesting foods to try. The Wehrley family feels blessed to have known Sandy in our lives. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to all of the family at this difficult time. May Sandy rest in peace and know our prayers will continue for the family. "

"The world is such a better place because Sandy was here. She had the most wonderful and inspiring combination of love, talent, and commitment to the good for everyone. She was a rock on which every initiative to improve learning at the University of Wisconsin - Madison still rests. So many people - students (especially!), staff, faculty, all of us - that she touched. Such willingness to give of her ideas, abilities and time, and with such a smile! My heart goes out to her family, for Sandy left us too soon. Please know that she is still everywhere in our hearts and our souls. "

"Sandy taught me Technical Writing at UW Madison and was also a friend of my mother's. She was a kind and lovely lady who was able to make writing interesting and important to engineering students (not an easy task). I'm sure she will be missed by her large family and friends. "

"Cousin Sandy and Bob were gracious hosts and "away from home parents" while I stayed with them for a summer internship at UMW Hospitals in 1975. This experience created a special bond which Sandy and I often referred to over her Holiday visits back to the farm in Ohio. She made a difference in so many lives and will be a light gone from this world but shining brightly in Heaven."

"Dr. Courter was my professor for my first engineering class at UW in 2002. She was so kind and warm and I was fortunate to stay in touch with her until I graduated. My prayers to her family."

"Sandy was a mentor, coach, sounding board, shoulder to cry on, reality check, co-author, work colleague, teacher, and, most of all, a great friend. Sandy knew everyone; she was the ultimate "connector" -- one of the people Malcolm Gladwell describes as knowing vast numbers of people and introducing them to one another. She was a warm, strong woman who was always willing to share and to give of herself. We will miss her more than words can say."

"I first met Sandy in the 1990s because we shared interests in helping engineering students improve their writing and helping engineering faculty improve their teaching. In the summer of 1999, she directed the week-long Science and Engineering Education Scholars Program, which prepared about 30 new and prospective faculty members for their teaching duties. After Sandy convinced me to host this program at the University of Illinois in the summer of 2000, Sandy traveled to Urbana in November 1999 for a long meeting to help a graduate student and me plan the program. She shared detailed notes and materials. We followed her playbook closely, including the messenger bags for the participants. We continued to interact professionally in subsequent years. I have valued Sandy's generosity in sharing her expertise and her passion for excellence in teaching. "

"To Sandy's family I send my heartfelt sympathies and prayers of understanding and faith that Sandy has gone on to her Lord and is in his loving arms. Sandy was a favorite classmate at Logan High School. A lady with a ready smile, a kind word and always with a hand up when anyone was in need! She will be missed. "

"Sandra's aunt Pat, called to tell me about Sandra's passing. She had been keeping me updated as my husband, Don, had MM also. Diagnose in June, 08, he passed away on Sept. 2, 2014. Let's all pray for a cure for this cancer, that one day, the name Multiple Myeloma will be a thing of the past, soon. My sympathy to the family."

"I knew Sandy Courter for many years--initially as her advisor but mostly as a student, colleague, and friend. When I think of Sandy I think that she was one of the loveliest human beings I have ever known. Her kindness and generosity, uncompromising commitment to uplifting others, and extraordinary grace and resilience in the face of her illness--among other qualities--directly and indirectly enriched the lives of so many of us (from her family and close friends to literally hundreds of us at the UW-Madison. Our condolences to Bob and their three children and other family members. "