Sarah Ruth Hammond

Sarah Ruth Ham­mond, 34, of Ober­lin, died in Williams­burg, Va., on Thurs­day, Nov. 24, 2011, after a long and brave strug­gle with men­tal ill­ness. A 1995 grad­u­ate of Ober­lin High School, Sarah received her Bach­e­lor of Arts Degree in 1999 and her Ph.D. in His­tory of Amer­i­can Reli­gion in 2010, both from Yale University.

Sarah was employed at Yale’s Cen­ter for Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Research on AIDS from 1999-2003.

Dur­ing her stu­dent years, Sarah was the recip­i­ent of the Andrew F. Mel­lon Fel­low­ship in Human­is­tic Stud­ies and the Richard J. Franke Inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Fel­low­ship, an award given to excep­tional stu­dents in the human­i­ties at Yale Uni­ver­sity. She was also a Lake Doc­toral Dis­ser­ta­tion Fel­low at the Lake Insti­tute on Faith and Giv­ing at the Cen­ter on Phil­an­thropy at Indi­ana Uni­ver­sity. Sarah’s doc­toral dis­ser­ta­tion titled “God’s Busi­ness Men: Entre­pre­neur­ial Evan­gel­i­cals in Depres­sion and War,” was being revised under con­tract with the Uni­ver­sity of Chicago Press at the time of her death.

In August, Sarah moved to Williams­burg, Va., to begin a posi­tion as a vis­it­ing pro­fes­sor at the Col­lege of William and Mary. Dur­ing her brief tenure there, her stu­dents held her in high regard for her engag­ing teach­ing meth­ods, atten­tive­ness to stu­dents, wit, and pas­sion for her sub­ject matter.

Sarah loved to read and research, tak­ing delight in the inter­sec­tion between Amer­i­can Chris­tian­ity and Amer­i­can cul­ture. She also loved to engage peo­ple in lively dis­cus­sions of reli­gion, pol­i­tics, and pop­u­lar cul­ture. She was devoted to her two cats, Gan­dalf and Thea.

The count­less peo­ple whose lives Sarah has touched already miss her greatly. She is sur­vived by her par­ents, the Revs. Mary and Steve Ham­mond, pas­tors of Peace Com­mu­nity Church in Ober­lin, Ohio; sis­ter Grace Ham­mond (David Fanelli) of Kelly, Wyo.; sis­ter Rachel Ramirez-Hammond (Juan Car­los Ramirez), niece Sofia Ramirez and nephew San­ti­ago Ramirez of Lewis Cen­ter, Ohio.

Memo­r­ial con­tri­bu­tions can be sent to Peace Com­mu­nity Church, 44 E. Lorain St., Ober­lin, 44074 or to the Bap­tist Peace Fel­low­ship of North Amer­ica, 4800 Wedge­wood Dr., Char­lotte, N.C., 28210, des­ig­nated for the BPFNA Schol­ar­ship Fund.

A pri­vate grave­side ser­vice was held on Mon­day, Dec. 5, 2011, at West­wood Ceme­tery. A Cel­e­bra­tion of Life Ser­vice, open to the pub­lic, will be held on Dec. 30, 2011, 11 a.m., at First Church (UCC), located at the cor­ner of Main and Lorain streets in Oberlin.

Online con­do­lences may be made to www.cowlingfuneralhomeoh.com.

Posted by Kathleen Willbond on Dec 9 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.