| LOUIS T. BENEZET AWARD RECIPIENT 2009 |
 Sarah Andrews '73
In the short version of her autobiography, Sarah Andrews describes herself simply as “a geologist who writes mystery novels about a geologist.”
The longer version offers a different introduction to her intriguing life. She “was born 20 minutes to midnight in the middle of a thunder storm and has muddled through darkness punctuated by flashes of brilliance ever since,” she writes on her Web site.
Sarah grew up in New England, the daughter of academics – her father taught art and painted in oils; her mother, English and comparative religions. Her childhood was filled with rich experiences: sailing, ice-boating, sketching, visiting New York City galleries with her father and Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary with her mother. She explored Maine’s granite pegmatites with her father and uncle, and school trips to Yale’s Peabody Museum and the American Museum of Natural History introduced her to rocks, minerals and fossils.
When it was time to choose a college, Sarah headed west to Colorado College.
Professors William Fischer and John Lewis inspired her, providing “an intellectual playground in which I could discover and develop my talents for four-dimensional thinking. And they liked my stories.”
Those stories form the backbone of Sarah’s current career – as the author of a series of mysteries that have forensic geology as their background. Sarah’s reappearing heroine, Emily Hansen, has been described as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes who uses geologic clues in crime-solving adventures; and, like Sarah, Em Hansen studied geology at CC.
Sarah also lectures at colleges in California, and is a licensed pilot. Her husband, Damon Brown, is also a geologist, and they have a son, Duncan.
Alumni Awards Main Page |