Sharon Stroud Obituary

I am very sad about the loss of Sharon. She did so much for science education, especially earth science, in Colorado Springs over the years. She continued to do her best to help in so many ways, even as her health made this such a challenge for her. She will be very much missed.

Sharon was always a hard working science teacher. She was also involved with the science community. She will be missed.

Sharon was a true earth scientist! She grew up in a relatively flatland part of Illinois but truly loved the mountains and their geology so ended up in Colorado for most of her life. Her love of geology and teaching about it informed her whole life. Her house was full of rocks and she knew each one of them and how they were formed. She often would answer questions even in her long illness if it was about a rock we had found or seen. She was an inspiration to me as a teacher. Our condolences to family and friends.

Sharon was a truly invested earth scientist in both her teaching and studies. Her house was full of rocks of all types and she knew them all! She grew up in Illinois in a relatively flatland area but loved the mountains and their geology. Her instinct was to teach us all always and she was willing to explain so even those of us who were amateurs could understand. Even in her long illness she could be counted on to answer a geology question! : ) We will miss her. Our deepest condolences to family and friends.

Ms. Stroud is an example to me of how teachers touch our lives. My older brother had her and liked her, so I went into her class expecting to like her also. I took Astronomy and Geology with her. Most of the kids I had in classes the rest of the day were not in her classes, but I was determined to take every science class at my school so I took hers, too. I remember thinking she was odd for wearing socks with her sandals to work, but now I would do the same, lol. She was a bit gruff, but a master of her craft - she was the head of the national earth science teachers organization for awhile. Kids learned in her class without even knowing they were learning. She developed cool labs that we did in her classes that I still remember - we made a celestial sphere and we had this cool project where we found a spot where we could see the horizon at sunset, drew it, and then returned repeatedly over time, recording the position of the sun at sunset and the time of its set. We did a similar project for the moon. She grabbed two of us in her class and sent us to a geology competition in Science Olympiad where we took second without any preparation, just from being in her class, where I never had to study or do homework because I found it 'easy'. I think if I had it to do over i might have gone into Earth sciences in college instead of Physics, but at the time i chose not to because it seemed all the related jobs were in the oil industry which I knew didn't interest me. Widefield had a great science department then of which she was a key part.