Cheryl Hindrichs, professor of English and director of the Hemingway Literary Center, died in July 2022. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Leslie Durham shared a letter remembering her friend and colleague.
I write with the sad news that Cheryl Hindrichs, our colleague in the English department, has passed away. While I wish there was a more personal way to share this news, I wanted to also ensure timely communication with the College of Arts and Sciences community, as Cheryl worked with many beyond her home department.
As I process my own feelings around this loss to our community, and in speaking with others close to Cheryl, I am reminded of all the ways Cheryl’s life and work touched so many people.
She was a voracious reader who shared her passion for and love of literature and storytelling generously with others. She was an extraordinary colleague, a dedicated and beloved teacher and mentor to both undergraduate and graduate students, and to the community at large. Cheryl was a remarkable human being—kind, humble and generous, willing to welcome students and colleagues into her home and share her love for life.
An expert in British modernism, critical theory, and especially the writings of Virginia Woolf, Cheryl had a deep interest in the ways that illness has been represented in literature. She had long been at work on a book, “Pandemic Modernity,” that examined the ways that the 1918 pandemic and its aftermath helped shape the development of literary modernism.
Cheryl also taught courses and gave lectures on food and literature, which was a topic of both professional and personal interest. And as her colleagues and students know well, many a committee meeting or class session was enlivened by something warm and delicious that Cheryl brought, straight from the oven.
She shared her expertise in these topics not just through her scholarship, but also with the community by leading the Literature for Lunch lecture series at the Boise Public Library, Directing the Hemingway Lecture series and teaching courses at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
I am grateful to Ann Campbell and Lauren Hershey who are working on a memorial service for Cheryl that will take place at 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16 in the Lookout Room in the Student Union Building.
Finally, I know that the pain of this kind of loss can be felt in stages. As faculty and staff, we have access to five free counseling sessions on campus. You can contact Counseling Services at (208) 426-1459 or visit their website to set up an appointment to receive one-on-one support.
Please know that I am thinking of you all.
Sincerely,
Leslie