Memorial Address:
Dr. Sherri Lynn Rumer Cooper
The Rev. Dr. Jonathan S. Rose
Bryn Athyn Cathedral, December 5, 2015
Readings: Heaven and Hell 56; Psalm 8:1, 3-9; True Christianity 32:1,3;
Matthew 13:24-28; Divine Providence 326:10; John 14:1-3
O
n behalf of Dave, Zia and Anji I would like to welcome you all to this
service to celebrate the life of Dr. Sherri Lynn Rumer Cooper.
I would like to frame this talk in terms of four closely related qualities that
were important to Sherri: diversity, evenness, balance and harmony.
I think she learned a lot about these qualities by studying diatoms, so if
you’ll indulge me, I’d like to start by telling you some of what she discovered in
her research about them.
Diatoms are single-celled, microscopic, plant-like creatures encased
in clear, complex silica shells of astounding beauty and variety; they live in
the water but in a sense closest to the sun in the food chain. They do what
no human chemist can do: they take sunlight and turn it into food. They are
invisible to the naked eye, and so are easily underappreciated, but they supply
about a quarter of the biomass, a quarter of the food, and almost a third of the
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