Sheridan Wobus

Sheridan "Sherry" Wobus

1943-2010 WILLIAMSTOWN Sheridan "Sherry" Whitcher Wobus of Williamstown, passed away at home on June 13, after a short and courageous battle with brain cancer.

Born in Humboldt, Tenn. on Aug. 16, 1943, to Edward J. and Margaret W. Whitcher, she attended schools in Appleton, Wis. and Prairie Village, Kan., before graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in education in 1965.

She met her husband, Reinhard A. "Bud" Wobus, while the two of them were camp counselors at Sanborn Western Camps in Florissant, Colo. in the summer of 1964. They were married in Kansas City on March 18, 1967, and returned to Williamstown, where Bud was a new faculty member at Williams.

She taught fourth grade at the Pine Cobble School for two years after arriving in Williamstown.

She was the loving mother of two children, Erik, 39, of Williamstown, and Cameron, 37, of Boulder, Colo.

Sherry will always be remembered for her winning smile and cheerful disposition, which brightened the lives of her family, friends, and neighbors. This spirit lives on in all corners of the world, in the hundreds of students she worked with at the Williams Center for Development Economics (CDE), where she was an administrator for 20 years. She will also be remembered by hundreds of Williams alumni for her role in nearly 30 travel-study programs, which she and Bud led in this country and abroad.

Sherry was also a very active member of the broader community. She was a town member of the Williams Choral Society, and later the Northern Berkshire Chorale. She was a volunteer for the Sonsini Animal Shelter and the Bill Koch Ski League, where she helped teach young children Nordic skiing.

She kept her positive attitude even through the devastating illness which was diagnosed only in April, her own life brightened by visits from friends, family, and her two grandchildren, Ethan and Elise.

In addition to her husband of 43 years, her sons, and her grandchildren, Sherry leaves her mother, Margaret Whitcher, 91, of Kansas City, and her younger siblings, Edward Wright Whitcher and Margaret Eleanor Whitcher.

MEMORIAL NOTICE: A memorial service celebrating Sherry's life will be held at St. John's Episcopal Church on Park Street in Williamstown, at 11 a.m. on Friday, June 18, followed by a reception. A private family burial will be held at the Williams College cemetery. There are no calling hours.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the VNA-Hospice of Northern Berkshire, the Oncology Center of the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, or St. John's Episcopal Church. Donations should be made through the FLYNN AND DAGNOLI-MONTAGNA HOME FOR FUNERALS, CENTRAL CHAPELS, 74 Marshall St., North Adams, MA 02147.