Remembering Our Co-Founder, Sherri Schultz
The Northwest Editors Guild community has been deeply saddened by the loss of one of the Guild’s two co-founders, Sherri Schultz.
Sherri and Phyllis Hatfield started what was then called the Northwest Independent Editors Guild in 1997 with just eleven members, and in 1999, as the Guild became a little more formal, Sherri built its first website. She was also the Guild's treasurer for some time, and did most of the administrative work involved in keeping the Guild running in the early years, including securing rooms for meetings and reserving booths at events. In addition to her extensive work in helping the Guild to grow into a registered nonprofit and setting us up to become today an organization with more than 400 members across the United States, Sherri was a passionate educator, organizer, and builder of community. After her unexpected and tragic death in July 2023, our members shared an outpouring of remembrances and thoughts on Sherri’s contributions to the Guild and our community on our private discussion list. Just a few of these remembrances are copied with permission below, along with some photos of Sherri and a few pieces of Guild history particularly related to Sherri.
We’d love to add to our memorial here! If you have photos or memories of Sherri’s time in the Guild that you’d like to share with us, please email info@edsguild.org.
“A History of the Northwest Independent Editors Guild:
Reflections on our 10th anniversary by Sherri Schultz, co-founder”
In 2011, then-president of the Guild Karalynn Ott, posted the following note to the Guild’s website
about Sherri’s contributions to the Guild:
“Over the years, many members have given time to the Guild. Some have given otherworldly amounts—and I’d like to honor one of those people today. Her name is Sherri Schultz. Now, Sherri is someone we’ve thanked before. But honestly, can we thank her enough?
Helen mentioned Sherri’s role in the Guild’s beginnings. And she’s served in numerous leadership roles since then. But this year was a turning point: Sherri left the board this spring after 11 years as a member of the Steering Committee or board.
But you know, Sherri just keeps giving so much back to the Guild through her time, energy, and wisdom.
She’s continued to amass volunteer hours this year as an advisor to this conference committee and as an ongoing and often-called-upon advisor to the board.
So the board wanted to give a special thank you to Sherri—Guild co-founder, Steering Committee member, board member, special committees member—and all around go-to gal.”
In 2017, on the occasion of the Guild’s 20th anniversary, our Board of Directors proposed and approved a special resolution honoring Sherri and her many, many contributions to the Guild. Read the resolution here.
Amy Smith Bell
“I met Sherri in 1998, when the Editors Guild was still meeting in living rooms. I had just moved to Seattle. I served with Sherri on the inaugural steering committee with some very fine folks—Beth, Brie, David, Randy, Diane, Sigrid, who else am I forgetting? Those meetings were filled with laughter, good cheer, enthusiasm, and a sense of collegiality that I craved. At the time I didn’t know any other independent editors. Sherri was at the center of everything—connecting with colleagues and friends, putting people and ideas together. She was a generous colleague, a gifted organizer and facilitator, an encourager to all. She made things happen!”
Nevin Mays
“I'm saddened to hear that Sherri passed. I didn't get to know her well, but I appreciated and was honored to have made her acquaintance. She introduced herself to me after I began managing mentorships for the Guild in 2019. What struck me about her from the first communication was her generosity. Even if she wasn't available for weekly 1:1 mentoring, she made sure to join the monthly virtual chats and share her knowledge (and that was vast!) and advice and be an optimistic voice cheering on new editors.
As others have said, she was a connector. From my distant vantage point, it seemed she thrived when she was bringing people together. I got the sense that it didn't matter if your connection was tangential, if you had anything in common, something you might share, something of mutual interest to talk about, then she wanted you to join the group (whatever group it was).
Our community is a little bit duller today without her. I hope we all will bring a little bit of her light back by channeling her welcoming spirit, making connections for ourselves and for those around us, and just generally being generous with our time and our knowledge and most of all, our cheerleading for each other!”
Stephanie McMullen
“I met Sherri when I moved to Eugene and joined the local editors' group she had organized. We clicked immediately. I was fascinated by her intellect and eclectic background, including her time working for NPR, all the community organizing she had done, how she had founded the Editors Guild, and other stories. She spoke fondly of her student days at the University of Oregon, so one day we toured the campus and she shared her memories. There were many fun times with our social group, including a day trip to see all the famous covered bridges. Sherri had many interests, including sustainability and small space living, and she was proud of how well she was able to live in her 200 sq. ft. micro-studio. (She especially liked to show visitors her "Magic Closet.")
I will remember Sherri as the person I last saw in December 2019. I had moved back to Seattle but made a day trip to Eugene to see her. We toured the historic Shelton McMurphey Johnson House, a Victorian house beautifully decorated for Christmas. We were late and it was technically closed to visitors, but since Sherri had served as a volunteer a number of times, the manager let us go ahead and take a private tour. She was cheerful and full of news about her work in Eugene with the "micro-dweller" community and her fight for more affordable housing options. That day she gave me a personal memento as a Christmas gift that I will forever treasure.
My thoughts are with her family and friends, including all in the Guild who knew her.”
The Guild’s first-ever coffee hour, at Ba Bar on Capitol Hill in March 2012, including Elizabeth Johnson, Mary-Colleen Jenkins, an unknown editor, Helen Townsend, another unknown editor, Nancy Hogan, and Sherri Schultz. Photo provided by Elizabeth Johnson.
If you can help us identify the two anonymous editors in this photo, please email info@edsguild.org!
Sherri Schultz and Richard Isaac in front of the Guild’s Red Pencil in the Woods banner. Photo provided by Richard Isaac.
Ann Colowick
“Sherri first contacted me in 1996, when she began to think about getting Northwest editors together. She invited me to the first meeting, but [...] I couldn’t make it. I kept receiving regular updates, though, and Sherri and I were Facebook friends for years.
I moved to Seattle in 2013, and we ran into each other occasionally at meetings or in the community. The most time we ever spent together was after she had moved to Eugene. In 2019 we both attended the AWP conference in Portland. She had organized a group of editors in Eugene, and several of them came to the conference. She introduced me to some of them, and we sat together at Colson Whitehead’s keynote talk. She and I gravitated together a few other times during the conference as well.
She seemed to need social connections, perhaps more than most people, and to thrive on helping others. Knowing that so many of us struggled emotionally during the pandemic, I can only imagine how that isolation might have affected her.”
Laura Lee Bennett
“I first met Sherri at Microsoft many years ago. I was an FTE production editor, and our group was interviewing for a proofreader position for Languages User Ed (programmer and reference docs).
After interviewing several candidates, I left Sherri in the conference room with a 4-page proofreading test. She found her way back to my office within 20 minutes, and was quietly seated in a chair, looking over her answers on the test, and using a red pencil. Sherri scored high on the test, but more than anything, I was impressed with her self-sufficiency. We hired her, and she became an excellent, repeat contractor. Very little rattled her in that stressful environment.
We were instantly colleagues and became friends. I came to some of the first NWIEG meetings.
When she lived in Belltown, in a 1920s-era apartment building, she let me crash after a long night of editing at a nearby gig.
I visited her at her lovely little Capitol Hill condo before she sold it.
When she lived in Wallingford, she gave me buckets of cherry tomatoes and an elegant set of tea dishes. (She was moving out of her boyfriend’s house and downsizing.)
I lost track when she moved to Eugene. I just can’t believe she’s gone.”
Andie Ptak and Sherri Schultz. Photo provided by Richard Isaac.
Elizabeth Lyon
“I met Sherri when she started up the Springfield-Eugene Editors (SEE) group that met for about a year but then stopped with Covid. She was a brilliant organizer and also knew how to entice others to help her with all facets of building an organization. At its peak, her group had 50 editors locally who had joined the Meet Up site for the group. An amazing number for our small community.
Sherri had a passion for living lightly on the Earth. She became involved with the Tiny Homes movement here in Eugene. On a few occasions, I visited her in her very tiny rental room, like a dorm room, in a complex that mostly serves U of Oregon students. It had a dining room and the lease included all meals. Sherri went to work on the cook, to teach him, encourage him, to make healthier meals. Always an educator.
When an editor and I revived the group she had started, under the name Western Oregon Editors, we always sent notices to her, but they, like emails and voicemail, went unanswered. I wanted her to see how her influence had continued into this new group.
Many of us here in Eugene, who had the chance to get to know Sherri and work with her, are very sad to hear about her death and the tragic way it ended.”
The 2011 conference planning committee plus keynote speaker the night before the Red Pencil in the Woods conference. Back row, Shirley Wilke, Helen Townsend, Carol Fisher Saller, Susie Thorness, and Bill Thorness. Front row, Carrie Wicks, Sherri Schultz, and Elizabeth Johnson. Photo provided by Elizabeth Johnson.
Mi Ae Lipe
“I never knew her really well, and in the early years of being a Guild member, I met her several times at events, programs, and potlucks. Even though we didn't work together directly on anything, I was struck by her intelligence, charm, thoughtfulness, and her sheer drive to just make life better for people, the environment, and community. As someone said earlier, she was small but such a force of nature for change and improvement. I'm sure I speak for all of us that we are extraordinarily grateful for co-founding the Guild with Phyllis and nurturing it toward what it has become today.
I remember visiting her once at her condo in Capitol Hill and immediately felt welcomed like I was an old friend, even though we were not especially close. We had so much to talk about—the business of editing, the beautiful objects she treasured in her place, and the rising costs of Seattle and how the city was changing. Then we lost touch for a long while and I did not see her again for years; I think it was during that time when she had a dark period that someone else mentioned.
The last time I saw Sherri was in September of 2019, when I was on my way to San Francisco, and she invited me to stop by and visit her in Eugene. At that time she was very active again on Facebook, so I knew some of the goings-on in her life. We enjoyed a simply delightful afternoon, in which she proudly showed me her micro-studio and spoke excitedly about her determination to get the chef there to serve more healthful food in the common dining cafe there. Then we went to lunch at a lovely restaurant near her home, and there we caught up on many things in our lives.”
Elizabeth Johnson, Sherri Schultz, Shirley Wilke, Carol Fisher Saller, Carrie Wicks, Bill Thorness, and Helen Townsend at Red Pencil in the Woods at Bastyr University on September 24, 2011. Photo provided by Elizabeth Johnson.
Brie Gyncild
“When I heard the news about Sherri today, I was surprised to realize how long it had been since I'd heard from her. It's so easy to get caught up in our lives and lose track of people. I'm glad folks are sharing their memories here and hope to attend the celebration of life when it occurs.
I knew Sherri quite well for many years. I served on the Guild's steering committee (before we had a formal board) for a decade, and worked with Sherri closely on many things. It was a great group of people with a real camaraderie, and Sherri was a central part of that. Later, I mostly saw her on non-Guild occasions, sharing a meal together or talking about travel plans. She lived in my neighborhood for years so our paths crossed frequently.
I know that many of us who knew her well tried to help her during a dark time of her life about eight years ago, and that it was challenging for everyone who cared about Sherri. But I was so encouraged when she rebounded and she was so excited about starting a new chapter of her life in Eugene. I'm sad that the energy and community she fostered in her first few years in Eugene weren't enough to see her through whatever constellation of events led to her death. I hope that the friends and family who tried to help her during that time can take care of themselves and each other.
Sending virtual hugs to all who knew and cared about Sherri, and to all who struggle, whatever that may look like for you.”
Kristi Hein
“This sent me to my email folder of our correspondence, which ran from 2007 to 2020. She sent me the welcome message when I joined the Guild in 2004. And if you accumulate all your Guild newsgroup archives, you'll find a wealth of Sherri there. The last one is March 25, 2020.
Sherri was one of a kind. Small but MIGHTY. So many memories. Red Pencils, of course. We had dinner together once in Seattle before a Guild meeting. I recall her incredible saga of moving in with her hoarder father in SoCal to deal with decades of accumulation (including a yard full of old cars and junk), which she documented with a web diary. Then shepherding him to his end of life in Seattle, including curating a Facebook page for him. She also took responsibility for an elderly aunt who needed shepherding. We commiserated for years on the fraught state of US health care for freelancers.
Sherri migrated back and forth between Seattle and San Francisco (my old stomping grounds), then moved to Eugene where, as someone noted, she crusaded for more nutritious offerings in the dining hall (she was in student housing, essentially). She last posted on her Facebook page in April 2020. It is worth a visit to see the record of her lively and intelligent observations on the world up to the pandemic's advent (as noted above, her last newsgroup message was March 2020). I can't help but think that the impact of Covid's social isolation took a toll on her.”
Carrie Wicks and Sherri Schultz at a tabling event for the Guild before our name change. Photo provided by Carrie Wicks.
“Enjoy this virtual library of 150 books I’ve edited: reedsy.com/schultz-sherri”
From Sherri’s old email signature, as submitted by Beth Chapple
Kyra Freestar
“I joined the Guild in 2005, when editors brought potluck dishes to meetings at Hugo House, I was the newest editor in the room, and Sherri was the driving force behind all Guild events … who then turned her passion toward organizing the then-steering-committee into a legal nonprofit board and setting up a platform that would allow the Guild to continue strong long after she left her leadership position. She was a remarkable person, at that time so full of enthusiasm and interest in so many topics. I have so much awe and gratitude for all she did in the world, including for us here.”
Sherri posing in front of the Red Pencil in the Woods banner. Photo provided by Richard Isaac.