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The Pinecone
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April 2017
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Germany, Denmark and Austria where they learned to ski! They even
bought a Volvo that they bought at the plant in Sweden.
After returning to the states, Mark was stationed at Offutt AFB, and
Sheryl decided to get her Master’s Degree in Math Education at the
University of Nebraska-Omaha, where she also taught, until Mark got
transferred to Langley AFB in Newport News, Virginia. She then took
a job teaching at Christopher Newport College, but could only teach
for three years there, without a PhD. Sheryl then taught beginning
calculus for a year at William and Mary. From there she decided it was
time to get her PhD. Unfortunately, the closest place to achieve this
was 145 miles away at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
So she spent the next two and a half years commuting back and forth,
three days there, four days at home, until she received her doctorate in
Math Education in 1994 at age 50. Mark had retired with the rank of Lt.
Colonel, and Sheryl took a job at The University of Memphis.
During their move to Memphis, Sheryl was diagnosed with ovarian
cancer, and received chemotherapy throughout the summer of ‘94, and
started teaching in September at U of M that same year. That year was
difficult, but she persevered and is now cancer free. Sheryl was tenured
in 1998 and she remained on the faculty at the University of Memphis,
College of Education for 14 years, retiring as anAssociate Professor of
Mathematics Education in 2008.
While at Memphis, Sheryl was Principal Investigator (PI) of 4
Eisenhower Title II Grants, Co-PI of a Teacher Quality Grant, and Co-
PI of a National Science Foundation Grant. These grants ranged from
math topics of rational numbers, geometry, and algebra to encouraging
high school girls to take more math and science courses to expand
career options. She presented more than 60 mathematics and/or
education-oriented topics at national, state and local conferences in the
US. She was President of the University of Memphis Faculty Senate
in 2005-06 and earned Associate Professor Emeritus status in 2009.
She was President of the U of M Association of Retirees (UMARs)
from 2012-13 and is still active in that group. She served two years as
the President of the Research Council on Mathematics Learning and
received the 2015 UMAR’s TracesAward for exemplifying the concept
of remaining active in scholarly and/or civic pursuits into retirement.
After all of her accomplishments, I asked her what now? She said she
went back to sewing, knitting and crocheting. She and Mark both play
handbells (she can play four in hand). She started playing piano at
four, and violin at eight. She has dabbled at painting and poetry and
volunteers in the Blossom Shop two hours a week. She makes purses,
and has quite the green thumb. She is involved in two book clubs. She
and Mark try to walk every morning.
I finally had to ask her if there was anything she couldn’t do? Her reply,
“I can’t swim”.
L E A R N I N G B Y D I S C O V E R Y
Sheryl Maxwell
Sheryl A. DeMarcus was born in Denver, Colorado on August 16,
1943. Her mother Nina was a homemaker and her father, Keith,
worked in the personnel department at the Bureau of Reclamation,
which manages water in the western region of the US.
As a freshman at Colorado State College (now known as University
of Northern Colorado), she met her husband, sophomore Mark Dial
Maxwell, in a calculus class. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree
in Math Education; he with a Bachelor’s in Physics. The two married
in August of 1965. They have three sons: Brent, who works for GE
Digital in Cupertino, California and married to Karen; Scott, who
works for
Amazon.comin Seattle, Washington; Kyle, who is a civil
engineer in Memphis, is married to Kathryn and has two children,
Lillian age 6 and Rosemary age 3.
After graduation in 1966, Sheryl attempted to get a job teaching high
school math, a job for which she was qualified. However, at that time,
most math teachers were men who also were employed as coaches,
so she had to take a 7th grade math job and learn how to teach this
younger group of kids. She kept this job for three years. During this
time, Mark joined the Air Force, was stationed at Lackland AFB and
received a degree in Meteorology from Texas A&M. In 1971 he was
sent to Vietnam as part of the 101st Airborne Division near the DMZ.
Mark continued his military career for 23 years, causing the family to
relocate every two to three years.
From 1980-83, Mark was stationed at Ramstein AFB in Germany,
where Sheryl was able to teach college level math and earned enough
money to travel around Europe. Even the kids delivered newspapers
on base for their spending money. They went to London, Italy, East