Doris Sorensen Memorial

Memorial Service held on October 8, 2010 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Amherst, New York

Reflection II Dorrit Vibeke Sorensen
Reading passage from “Ode on Intimations” by Williams Wordsworth


The rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the rose;
The moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath pass’d away a glory from the earth.

My mother, Doris Sorensen was born on March 19, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was an architect from Denmark and her mother from Sweden. In 1929, the family returned to Denmark and moved to the picturesque city of Svendborg, on the island of Funen where storyteller Hans Christian Andersen lived. Her father designed and built many of the buildings still standing today in some of the most beautiful settings in the entire country, with panoramic views over the colorful city and peaceful harbor.

Doris received her Studentereksamen – Artium, from Svendborg Statsgymnasium in 1941, and her Filosofikum from the University of Copenhagen, in philosophy and ethics in 1942. She received the cand mag (Magister) in English, German, and Danish in 1948 also from the University of Copenhagen. Her dissertation was on playwright George Bernard Shaw, with whom she had corresponded. Her dissertation was entitled “Bernard Shaw’s Aspects on Religion.” In addition, she completed many translations into Danish, including D. H. Lawrence’s “The Rainbow.” She also wrote on the influence of “Die blaue Blume” on Danish Literature. In 1949, she received her Paedagogikum which allowed her to teach at many levels in the education system in Denmark.

During the Second World War, Denmark was occupied by the Nazis. Like her contemporaries, Doris was active in support of the Danish Resistance movement, which saved thousands of Danish Jewish lives through their courage, ingenuity, and unwavering support for human rights, justice, and freedom. They organized a massive, secret ferrying of Danish Jews to neutral Sweden in October 1943. I was always so proud of her and her generation for this.

In 1950, Doris married Dr. Soren Erik Sorensen, a dentist and university researcher who also had been active in support of the Danish Resistance. In 1951, they gave birth to their first child, my brother Flemming Erik and in 1954, their second child, me, Dorrit Vibeke Sorensen. Like other children born after the war, I was given an English firstname to honor the English and Americans for liberating Denmark from Nazi occupation.

In the 1950s, Doris was an official translator at the American and British Embassies in Copenhagen. She also taught English in the Military Academy, often bringing us as small children with her to class, to remind the young cadets of their responsibility to protect life. In recognition of her great talent for communication and language, and her commitment to democratic and humanistic principles, she was invited to serve the newly established United Nations in the Hague as an official translator.

In 1957, our family immigrated to Chicago where Soren pursued graduate studies in Dental Materials research and Doris taught languages at Northwestern University. They moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin a few years later, working at Marquette University, and in 1962, to Buffalo where Soren became an Assistant Professor of Dental Materials in the School of Dental Medicine, at the State University of New York. He served the University at Buffalo as Chair of the Department of Dental Materials between 1964 - 1988, and afterwards as Professor Emeritus until the 2000s. My father, Soren, is here today and I am very proud of him.

In 1962, Doris began teaching German, Danish, and later English as a Second Language at the University at Buffalo. Over the years, she also taught at local and regional high schools where she was known not only for her talent to inspire young people to learn languages, and through this to be open to the world’s cultures, but for her special classes where she taught about the horrors of the Holocaust and warned about the dangers of intolerance, persecution, and injustice, and their potential to lead to totalitarianism. In 1995 she and Sorens were invited to the White House to participate in a ceremony honoring the Danish Resistance.

Her support of democratic and ethical principles, and of the Jewish people during the Second World War and throughout her lifetime, Doris was recognized in 1994 by the Buffalo Chapter of the American Jewish Committee when she received The Righteous Among the Nations Humanitarian Award. She said to me at that time, “While I am profoundly touched by this recognition, the Holocaust never should have happened, and I never should have received this award.” Like her Danish compatriots, she felt that she only did what a decent person should do, and that it was a great tragedy that this would lead to award. She continued to see the events of the world through the same ethical lens throughout her life. Just as she criticized man’s inhumanity to man, she celebrated the positive, humanistic approach to life, and understood that thoughts and actions make a difference.

Doris Sorensen taught with joy, vigor and passion at the University at Buffalo throughout many years and until she was 84 years old, in 2006. She had many students, and often befriended them, inviting them home. Students in need of someone to talk to would seek her out and she was always available. In the summer of 1997, a young UB student traveled all the way to Copenhagen while she was teaching there just for this purpose. The student said to me “I can’t believe your mother is 75 years old! She is my best friend!” She often invited international faculty and family home too, and it was through these contacts that I first became aware of the great beauty and diversity of our family of mankind. I called our home “international hotel.” The people who came became friends, and friends were people you did not forget, ever. Friends are friends for life, and some of you are here today. Your constant love and caring for Doris, like her constant love and care for us all, is the most important thing in life. I can’t tell you how much it meant to me that she had you with her throughout the years, surrounding her and my father with kindness.

As a child, I recall Doris' rule that when we had company, we had to spend 30 minutes listening to the adults, and only after that were we allowed to play. I discovered that the adults were much more interesting than toys. She brought films from the embassies and consulates home, and projected them for our international audience. I thought all mothers did this. She also instilled in me a sense of responsibility and independence. She said to me, quoting Wordsworth: Child is father to man. And she always treated me with respect, asked me my opinions and advice, and it was daunting even then. When I was 8, she said “you have to get a good education so that when you grow up you won’t be dependent on anyone.” Through the years, she always believed in me including when I studied architecture, like she had wanted to do herself. She had a great if somewhat unfulfilled talent for drawing and painting. I have some of her delicate watercolors. She could conjure beautiful worlds with the magic of her pencil. She was talented also in music – she played the piano with grace and ease, like water flowing through her. She gave me books to read, insisting that I needed to read important literature. She gave me Shaw of course, but also Orwell, and many English and American poets. She encouraged me always to think beyond borders and be tolerant, but also with a critical mind. She was a very good judge of quality. She could really be a hard critic, but always with a sparkle in her eye. She loved people.

In 2005-6, Doris was teaching at UB on Danish art history and culture, as well as language. Because of her brilliant lectures and her energetic, inspired contact with young people in the university, she was invited to be an Honors Professor and propose her own course. She had hoped to teach about the fine arts, architecture, music, and literature in Denmark from the 1800s up to the present, in the context of communication across fields and cultures. Unfortunately due to failing health, she had to decline this invitation that had made her so happy.

She was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Amherst, as well one of the founders of the Buffalo Scandinavian Club. She was also a member of the UB Womens’ Club, and Danes Worldwide, which supports cultural exchanges between Denmark, the US, and many other countries. Each summer, she participated in teaching special courses in Denmark for students from all over the world and attended the Kronborg Meeting, which was attended by the Danish Royal Family and took place in Kronborg Castle, in Elsinore, north of Copenhagen. This is known as “Hamlet’s Castle,” and was also the site of the ferrying of the Danish Jews to freedom in Sweden in October of 1943.

Doris was my best friend, my best teacher, my role model, my wisest counsel, and my mother. She was the most humanistic and ethical person I have ever known, and I was so lucky to have been born to her. I did my best to see her as much as possible over the past few years, to help her and show her my love and make her happy. I moved to Buffalo in 2007 when she and my father were still living alone in their home. Over the next 2 years, while I was there, I did my best to support and comfort her, together with my brother Flemming.

Doris often quoted Piet Hein, the Danish poet and mathematician. One of her favorite poems was this one:

She was the most loving human being I have known in my life. She was everyone’s mother, counsel, and friend. She was our beautiful mother and I will think of her every day, for the rest of my life.