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Mitchell Franz has visited Sherri Taylor, his former professor and best friend, at least twice a year since he left Syracuse University in 2012.

Franz met Taylor at a workshop in Dallas when he was a high school sophomore, and she invited him to stay at her house during his time at SU. After living with Taylor for a year and a half, the two became — and remained — very close.

“Sherri was like the mother hen or mother goose that would spread her wings and take somebody in,” Franz said. “I’m just really fortunate that I was one of those people.”

Taylor died on Oct. 19 at home after a years-long battle with Parkinson’s disease. She was 70. She is survived by her 72-year-old sister, Vicki Boutwell.

Taylor taught in the military journalism program at SU’s Newhouse School of Public Communications since 1991 and was a longtime advocate for student journalism. Current and former SU students and faculty said she dedicated her career to uplifting students both in and out of the classroom, forging lasting relationships with many along the way.

Jennifer Sigal, one of Taylor’s former students, remembers how Taylor came to her wedding in Michigan six years after she graduated from SU. The two stayed in touch years later, and Taylor recently commented on Facebook photos of Sigal’s children.

Sigal met Taylor at a high school journalism camp in Michigan. Taylor was the reason she came to SU.

Taylor won several accolades for her contributions as a journalism educator and an advocate for student journalism. She most recently won the Star of Texas, awarded by the Association of Texas Photography Instructors, for her work in teaching photography and design. Taylor previously served as a student journalism adviser at a high school in Irving, Texas, the city where she grew up.

Her life “mostly revolved around Newhouse,” said David Sutherland, an adjunct professor at the school.

“She was committed to her work, and she was committed to her students,” Franz said. “Everything else was just kind of secondary.”

Sherri Taylor encouraged students to pursue their wildest ideas. Courtesy of Nancy Austin 

Taylor’s teaching style was very direct, SU seniors Katie Benson and Payton Campbell said. The students, who both took Taylor’s “Type and Image for Multimedia” course, said she always gave “brutally honest” feedback and encouraged students to learn from their mistakes.

“A few hours before I heard Sherri had passed, I was talking about something I’d learned in one of her classes,” said Rachel Baker, another one of Taylor’s former students, in an email. “That’s how much Sherri impacted my life: a decade plus post-graduation and she was dinner-table conversation.”

Taylor had Parkinson’s disease for close to 10 years, but kept her experience with the disease private because she didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for her, Franz said. She didn’t let the illness hold her back.

Former Newhouse dean David Rubin called Taylor “a trooper.” Taylor always found ways to inspire and energize her students, Campbell said.

“I created work and dreamt of concepts that didn’t even exist before her class, and that was the kind of professor Sherri Taylor was,” Campbell said. “She wanted us to think of our wildest dreams or our wildest idea.”

The door to Taylor’s office in Newhouse 1 was always open, and she kept a bowl of chocolates on her desk for anyone passing by, said Bruce Strong, professor and chair of Newhouse’s visual communications department. She packed the space with former students’ designs and items she had collected during her 30-year span at the school.

Anytime a colleague or student came in her office, she would swivel her chair around and stop working. Taylor was always willing to chat, Strong said.

She was willing to help her students and colleagues with any issue, said Renée Stevens, a professor and associate chair of the visual communications department in Newhouse. Taylor’s extensive journalism and teaching experience made her a great mentor to younger professors such as herself, Stevens said.

Unlike the chocolates and the work of her former students, Taylor kept her awards tucked away in her office.

“She wasn’t doing all this work for recognition,” Stevens said. “She was just doing it for the students.”

Taylor’s colleagues also knew her for her intense attention to detail. She once caught a misspelling on a professionally-done sign in Newhouse, said Nancy Austin, deputy director of the military journalism program. On another occasion, Taylor identified the exact font on the sign for a laundromat near Austin’s house.

“It was entertaining,” Austin said. “Even on her worst days, she could be entertaining.”

When Taylor attended journalism conventions and workshops, she maintained relationships with the people she met and kept in touch for years. She served as an unofficial ambassador for Newhouse and was “the gateway to considering Syracuse” for many students, said Gary Lundgren, associate director at the National Scholastic Press Association and one of Taylor’s best friends.

During the year-and-a-half at SU that Franz spent living with Taylor, the two cooked together multiple times a week and watched TV in the evenings. Taylor was like a fun aunt or older sister, he said.

“She was like family,” he said. “She was, she is.”

Boutwell didn’t talk to Taylor frequently but was still proud of her younger sister’s accomplishments. She’d brag to friends about Taylor’s career as a professor at SU, especially at a time when the visual communications industry was dominated by men, she said.

Sherri Taylor stayed in touch with students years after they graduated SU.  Courtesy of Nancy Austin 

Before moving to Syracuse to earn her master’s degree, Taylor was a student journalism adviser at Irving High School in Texas. The newspaper and yearbook programs she oversaw there were so well-produced that they “kicked the entire state of Texas up a notch,” said Bradley Wilson, Taylor’s colleague who became Irving’s journalism adviser a few years after Taylor left.

She played a pivotal role in advancing scholastic journalism, he said, and she continued to raise standards nationwide.

Taylor’s students have gone on to design for Fortune 500 companies and manage multimillion-dollar advertising agencies, Franz said. At Irving, she also taught John Moore, a photographer who has won multiple Pulitzer Prizes.

“I can’t tell you the number of former students, from both Syracuse and from high school, who’ve posted saying she’s the best teacher they’ve ever had,” Lundgren said. “She was a master teacher.”

Taylor was able to find success in both high school and college journalism, something that can be challenging because of the differing expectations and levels of independence, Wilson said. Her versatility spoke to her skills as a teacher, he said.

Even after leaving Irving for SU, Taylor remained connected to the high school journalism world, frequently teaching at summer conventions with friends such as Lundgren. She also served as director of the Empire State Scholastic Press Association.

Taylor planned to retire from SU in December. She was spending her final semester developing Newhouse’s high school journalism programs, Lundgren said.

As part of the military journalism program, Taylor taught students from a variety of backgrounds. Some were married with families. Some had done tours of duty. Some had photographed the president.

It took a special teacher to reach people from so many different backgrounds, and Taylor was just that, Austin said.

Former military journalism students – many on active-duty in war zones – would call Austin during the Gulf War in the early 90s to say hello.

Many of them would ask the same question when they called.

“The first couple things they’d say… ‘How’s Sherri Taylor? How’s professor Taylor doing, how’s professor Taylor doing?’” Austin said. “She obviously made a huge impact.”

Published on October 25, 2020 at 9:20 pm

Contact Roshan: [email protected] | @Roshan_f16