Charlotte Sorenson

Charlotte Ripley Sorenson

December 26, 1939 - June 26, 2025

"In Stillness There Is A Song"

On the morning of June 26, 2025, Charlotte Ripley Sorenson died peacefully and with extraordinary grace and dignity - just as she had lived every one of her 85 years. Interstitial lung disease finally quieted her inspired storytelling, discerning intellect, compelling voice, and mischievous wit. In her final months, she gifted her family and friends with fearless, wise lessons in life and laughter and love.

Having - just the day before - celebrated her 65th anniversary with her husband, Bud Sorenson, Charlotte (aka Za Za, Elfy and, for the past 40 years, Chaco) set off on life's final adventure alone and unafraid. After a lifetime of embracing travel, art, history, culture, nature, and epic journeys of the mind and body, at her end Charlotte found great comfort in the words of the Stoic Seneca: "We mortals also are lighted and extinguished; the period of suffering comes in between, but on either side there is a deep peace."

Raised in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and descended from Norwegian immigrants, British nobility, and New England Transcendentalists, Charlotte was steeped in the ideals of service, balance, and the golden rule. Her family valued education, science, the pursuit of knowledge and kindness. Little could she know that Wellesley College (class of 1961) would not only unleash her powerful intellect but would, by virtue of a locked door and an open window, connect her to Bud.

The two of them had a love affair and partnership for the ages: expats in Switzerland and thePhilippines, Harvard Business School faculty, Babson College president and first lady and more. Together, they taught at and founded graduate schools and kindergartens, led colleges and nonprofits, managed businesses and households. And while Bud, in keeping with the mores of the Greatest Generation, often held the grander title or got the public credit, Charlotte was the quiet alchemist sprinkling fairy dust and creating indelible memories with poetry, song and compelling prose.

With her art history major and Masters in Education, Charlotte was a consummate teacher and a legendary story teller. She mesmerized her children and grandchildren with dramatic tales and re-enactments of the lives of Egyptian pharaohs, Trojan warriors (Agamemnon and Clytemnestra), Alexander the Great, mountaineers and everyday heroes. She gathered her knowledge not just from books but from personal experience. Together, Charlotte and Bud lived in and visited over 100 countries, many of them multiple times. They made a point of sharing their love of exploration and foreign cultures with their family on eye-opening trips to every continent save Antarctica.

When not abroad or teaching her grandchildren to read with scrolls of phonetics and splendid drawings of "bats/cats/hats...", Charlotte nurtured her natural surroundings. A 1-acre wildflower meadow on the Stockbridge Bowl and her gem of a pocket garden next to the Longfellow House in Cambridge, MA, were early practice for the enchanting secret garden she imagined and brought to life at her home of 30+ years on Mapleton Hill in Boulder, Colorado.

An introvert, Charlotte treasured tete-a-tetes with friends and family. Nothing filled her cup more than a good conversation on an interesting topic with a friend, though if teasing banter and a walk were part of the occasion, even better. No shrinking violet, if born in a later decade, Charlotte would have made a formidable lawyer, consultant or stage actress. As it was, she preferred philosophical and intellectual discussions over emotional ones and had an uncanny skill for casting even everyday questions/pursuits into epic terms. All those who loved her were inspired by her integrity and her quiet quest to honoreternal human values, though sometimes we squirmed when put on the spot to try and live up to herexpectations. Those she leaves behind feel blessed that we can revisit her eye for detail and knack withwords and her life's lessons through her memoir, Charlotte's Way.

And so, likely borne on the wings of hummingbirds, finches and hawks, Charlotte left this world better than she found it and all of her loved ones imbued with an inimitable example of how to live with beauty, laugh with abandon, and love without reserve. She was an original and a wonder.

Charlotte leaves behind her devoted husband, Bud, three children (Kristin Sorenson, Katrina Peterson (Jess Peterson), and Eric Sorenson) and eight grandchildren (Kristin's four: William, Sophie, Alexa, and Evan; Katrina's two: Soren and Tessa; and Eric's two: Emily and Felix), a younger sister, Anne Ripley, a brother, George Ripley, and legions of friends in Boulder, Cambridge and in far-flung countries. She was predeceased by her beloved sister, Virginia Hathaway, and youngest brother, Franklin Ripley.

Charlotte and her family are ever grateful to the community of wonderful residents and staff at the Academy at Mapleton Hill in Boulder, Colorado. In her last months, they made sure her days were filled with blooms and cards, delicious food and even more filling visits. The care provided by the Trailwinds Hospice group was exemplary and very kind. The family hopes to host a memorial in Boulder, Colorado sometime this fall.

In lieu of gifts or flowers, a donation can be made to Community Foundation Boulder County. To donate by check, please make the check payable to Community Foundation Boulder County with the memo "In honor of Charlotte Sorenson" and mail to 1123 Spruce Street, Boulder, CO 80302.