Wesleyan celebrates the lives of two renowned women

Dr. Betty Jefferson Harris, Professor Emeritus of Biology and Chemistry, passed away June 26 due to complications from a massive cerebral hemorrhage.

A beloved teacher and friend, Jefferson Harris held a special place in her heart for each of her students. Even years after graduating from Wesleyan and moving on with their lives, her students kept in touch with her, continually updating her on the newest occurrences in their lives.

Jefferson Harris started her career at Wesleyan in 1975 and committed every day to educating the students who walked through her classroom doors. She taught biology, chemistry, cell biology, microbiology, biochemistry and bio-ethics.

While at Wesleyan, Harris received the Samuel Nelson Grey Distinguished Teaching Award for both 1981 and 1986. She was the first faculty member at Virginia Wesleyan to receive the award twice.

She also served as chairperson of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics from 1989 until her 2000 retirement.

Wesleyan’s Cellular and Molecular Biology lab in Blocker Hall was dedicated in Jefferson Harris’s honor at its unveiling.

“She felt very honored. Clearly teaching was her honor. She was dedicated to her students. Very humble, but very pleased,” said Dean Stephen S. Mansfield.

A tremendous spirit among the Wesleyan community was lost when Dr. Catharine Cookson, founding director of The Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, passed away June 16 following a long battle with breast cancer.

Cookson served as the director since 1998 and created a “safe zone” where people of various faiths could discuss religious issues on neutral ground.

She received her bachelor’s degree in history from Mundelein College in Chicago and a J.D. from Rutgers University Law School in Newark, N.J. In 1990, after years of studying environmental law, she decided to follow a path to better understand religion. She received a master’s degree in religious studies in 1992 from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D at Indiana University in 1997, where she discovered her passion for the connections between law, religion and social issues in America.

During the memorial service at Christ and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Norfolk, the Reverend Constance M. Jones spoke of Cookson as a person who “built bridges and quietly demolished barriers. She was a woman of great humility who humbly thanked the ordinary folks who cared for her in her illness.”

A memorial service was held outside The CSRF. Family, friends, faculty, President William T. Greer Jr., Chaplain Bob Chapman and students came out to dedicate a peace pole in her memory. Each of the four sides displays the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in a different language, those languages being English, Arabic, Hebrew, and Hindi. The peace pole will be the anchor for “The Peace Garden” that has been planned, in accordance with Greer’s vision, to be a place of serenity and contemplation.

“The words on the pole are appropriate. They’re not a free exercise clause, not an establishment clause, just a nice sentiment,” said Religious Studies Associate Professor Craig Wansink.

“My life is so much richer having known Catharine,” said assistant to the director for the CSRF Kelly Jackson. “She was a friend, a teacher and what made her special was her heart. It was big enough to include everyone.”

During the service at Wesleyan, Jackson appropriately read “Human Family,” a poem by Maya Angelou which partly reads: “I note the obvious differences between each sort and type, but we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”

There was a sense that day that she was there watching over as a single bird feather lay on top of the grass, near the back of the crowd during the ceremony. Many spiritual people see bird feathers as a sign of peace and balance, just what Cookson wanted to build with the center.

Cookson dedicated her entire library to the center. Seven bookshelves are filled, each with its own subject varying from law to world religions. She wrote two books herself, “Regulating Religion” and the “Encyclopedia of Religious Freedom.” Beyond her work, it is her smile that will most be remembered.

Like many others that knew Cookson, Dr. Wansink felt that “when Catharine smiled it was 100% sincere, grounded in shyness and said ‘things aren’t right, but everything is going to be alright.’”