Memorial Service Commemorates Life of Academic Affairs Dean

At a memorial service held in St. Paul's Chapel yesterday, co-workers, friends, and family members celebrated the life and mourned the death of Lea Baechler, assistant dean of Academic Affairs. Baechler died Friday afternoon of a brain aneurism at the age of 52.

Dean of Columbia College Austin Quigley spoke first at the memorial service, fondly remembering Baechler as an honorable person and a distinguished professional. "She worked closely with faculty, the Committee of the Core, the Office of Scholars and Fellows, but most importantly, she worked with students," Quigley said.

According to Quigley, when students had strong justifiable claims against University rules and regulations, they were sent to Baechler. What was most astounding about Baechler was that she was such a multi-faceted individual whose intellect and spirit allowed her to interact with all people--from her administrator colleagues to students, her friends emphasized.

Quigley added, "Lea as an administrator saw herself primarily as an educator. Though she came to it late in life, it was as though she had been preparing for it all of her life."

Baechler did in fact come late to academia; she was still adding the finishing touches to her dissertation in the English department.

Baechler taught at Columbia, Barnard College, Princeton University, and the University of Idaho. During her tenure at Columbia, she taught English, Creative Writing, Literature Humanities, and Great Books; while at Barnard, Baechler worked in the Department of English.

She is remembered by Dr. Margaret Vandenburg, a Barnard co-worker, as "a lover of young people ... someone who always tried to understand life in larger-than-life context." Vandenburg continued, "For gifted teachers like Lea, all classes are particularly wonderful."

According to the memorial service's speakers, Baechler tried to transcend the norm and elevate the intensity of the human experience through her exploration of mourning and loss in poetry. She was interested in the elegiac genre and her fascination with perfecting the articulation of poetry was apparent through her work.

Her Masters thesis was entitled "The Middle English Passion Lyric: Meditation and Affective Devotion," her Masters of Fine Arts thesis was entitled "This River is in the Sky," and her dissertation was entitled "Twentieth Century American Elegies: Loss, Mourning and Poetic Process."

Even though Baechler was an intellectual, she found time to spend moments in solitude on the beach. She loved the rugged mountains of Idaho, where she learned to wear her trademark cowboy boots so well that Vandenburg said she loved "her cowboy boots as fervently as a native."

Baechler leaves behind two sisters, Jan and Kim, her father, and three nieces, Erin, Heather, and Kelly. In addition, she leaves behind an extended family of co-workers, friends, and other admirers who will forever miss her and cherish her memory.

Carolyn DeMerice, a friend of Baechler's and an employee of Caffé Taci said that Baechler was as enthralled by her students as they were enthralled by her. "She touched so many of us," she said.