Liberty mourns professor

Sharon Hähnlen, who battled cancer for five years, remembered for service

After years of fighting cancer, Liberty University Professor Dr. Sharon Hähnlen died Saturday, Dec. 6 at the age of 69.

Sharon Hähnlen was born in Indiana and received a bachelor’s degree in modern language from Iowa State University. She was married to Rev. Dr. Lee W. Hähnlen, who was a former professor of church history and philosophy at Liberty University and a pastor at the historic Hat Creek Presbyterian Church. She came to Lynchburg in 1980 and had been with Liberty for 35 years. She taught various languages for the Department of English and Modern Languages and was an adjunct faculty member for the School of Education.

Sharon Hähnlen is survived by her son Joshua Hähnlen, 38. Her husband Lee Hähnlen died three months earlier in September at the age of 72. Her daughter Amanda Hähnlen, who was a student at Liberty University, died in 2001 as the result of a brain tumor.

Joshua Hähnlen remembers his mother as one who would work her hardest to prepare her children for the future.

“(My parents would) bend over backwards to make sure we had everything we needed as kids,” Joshua Hähnlen said. “We had a very Christian household to grow up in. Very, very high expectations.”

Former Liberty professor and founder of the Liberty Champion Ann Wharton had known Sharon Hähnlen and her husband since the late ’70s.

“(My husband) and I met for years on Saturday mornings at the Golden Corral at breakfast with them,” Wharton said. “So we just had years worth of friendship that grew, and we became closer and closer. She cared deeply about teaching.”

According to Wharton, Sharon Hähnlen loved traveling overseas, collecting items that could be used to teach, researching history and her family background and doing what she could to support her husband’s congregation. She spoke French, German and English.

“She took excellent care of Lee, who was handicapped from birth,” Wharton said. “And she took on more than she should have. If someone asked her to take something on academically, she’d do it. She taught overloads. She advised student teachers. She was always willing to do one more thing. She was on all kinds of committees. She just gave and gave and gave and gave.”

Her legacy at Liberty includes helping to establish the Department of English and Modern Languages, working to have courses added, working to establish the teaching major and helping the school gain accreditation.

Professor of Communication Studies Dr. Cecil Kramer largely credits Sharon Hähnlen for fighting to keep the foreign language program during the early stages of its development.

“She certainly kept the foreign language program before our eyes,” Kramer said. “She saw the value and the importance of it and (over time), it continued to grow.”

Wharton loved having her at the school, describing Sharon Hähnlen as blunt, but also cheerful and supportive.

“She was always there,” Wharton said. “We always were friendly. I don’t really remember an angry word or disagreement. So I guess you could say we were tolerant of each other’s weaknesses.”

Before her death in 2014, Sharon Hähnlen had previously struggled with bladder cancer, a cancer with the highest return rate in women, in 2009. She went into remission after treatment.

“It’s about an 80 percent return (rate) of cancer within five years,” Joshua Hähnlen said. “She got treated in ’09, went into remission and didn’t have anything coming back. Then she had this cough, it may have been an allergen, this really deep hacking cough. I thought, ‘Something’s not right, she needs to go to a doctor.’ But she wouldn’t go to a doctor because she was always worried about taking care of Dad. My father was having some significant health issues. He did his entire life.”

Lee Hähnlen went into the hospital in May and died in September. After his death, Sharon Hähnlen said she felt she should go to the hospital because she thought she had
an ulcer, according to Joshua Hähnlen.

“At the time she was diagnosed, there was nothing, short of a miracle, that could have been done to save her life,” Joshua Hähnlen said. “By the time she went in, she was already stage four cancer, and it had spread into her chest, which made sense because of the cough. She went in before Thanksgiving for a check up, and she was admitted and then sent home. And then she went back in on the 29th of November and died on the 6th of December. It was that fast. ”

In the months before her death, Sharon Hähnlen continued to try to prioritize others’ needs before hers. According to Wharton, she had been busy with teaching, supporting her husband and his ministries and trying to sort things out with her estate for her son to inherit.

“She tried to work up until the end, but she just couldn’t do it anymore,” Wharton said. “I wish I could have gotten her to go to the hospital sooner, but Sharon would do what Sharon would do. She just never quit.”

According to Joshua Hähnlen, his mother was not worried about dying because she wanted to be with her daughter and husband.

“She was in a lot of pain,” Joshua Hähnlen said. “My mom never took painkillers. She got a root canal without anesthesia or any numbing. So when they told me that night, the 5th, ‘We had to give your mom morphine’, I (thought), ‘This is it.’ And the next morning, they said, ‘We gave her morphine. She was at peace,’ and I said, ‘That’s when the Lord took her, because she was at peace.’”

Kramer admired Sharon Hähnlen for her perseverance.

“She had a lot of trials and struggles and difficulties in life,” Kramer said. “It was not an easy road for her to hold. She herself had some trying times in her life and she overcame those.”

Despite facing many hardships, Sharon Hähnlen never retired from teaching at Liberty. She stayed with the school for 35 years.

“She loved teaching,” Joshua Hähnlen said. “I think that’s what gave her the most joy in life. Students comment on loving her classes or write to her after they graduate about how much of an influence she had on their formative college years. As a professor, you want affirmation from your students that you taught them well, and she got that.”

For Wharton, the realization that her friend of more than three decades is no longer here still hurts.

“I’ll be thinking about something and thinking of telling Sharon, and then I’ll remember she’s gone,” Wharton said. “She was a good friend, and I miss her.”

A memorial service was held for Sharon Hähnlen Monday, Jan. 18, at Rivermont Presbyterian Church.

JANNEY is the asst. news editor.