In Memoriam

Sharon O’Donnell Franklin, who died suddenly on April 22, 1997, is missed by all who knew and worked with her. Her Irish knack for storytelling is legendary, and ASET members owe Sharon a huge debt of gratitude for her stewardship of their journal.

Sharon started in EEG with Dorothea Brittenham at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. After graduation she stayed at BNI as staff and began her service in EEG education as instructor for students who followed her in the accredited EEG program. At this time, Dorothea was serving as editor for the American Journal of EEG Technology. Sharon’s personal skills, aided by college experience in journalism, were put to good use doing indexing and proofreading for the Journal. When Dorothea stepped down in 1976, after 10 years as volunteer editor, Sharon was ready to take over as the fourth editor of the now prestigious Journal. Sharon’s journalistic style and organizational skills kept the Journal on an even keel as ASET executive direction grew and changed, eventually taking back production of the Journal. When Dr. Greg Ferris finished his term as Medical Editor, Sharon recruited Dr. Ernst Niedermeyer, who served as Medical Editor for the next nine years.

Sharon faced the same problem of insufficient numbers of submitted articles that all editors of the Journal have shared. She was active in recruiting technologists to write articles. She encouraged potential authors at ASET meetings, which she attended as ex officio member of the ASET Board. Her wit, enthusiasm, and humor were a perfect combination for taking the fear out of writing for an international publication. Sharon dearly loved the Journal and when her husband’s work moved the family to Winslow, Arizona, from 1979 through 1985,Sharon was able to keep the intellectual stimulus and her ties to the field of EEG by taking the editorial office with her. During the Winslow years, Sharon served on the Board of the local hospital, giving her a chance to view healthcare from a different perspective.

Fortunately for her readers and successors, Sharon had the organizational skills necessary to oversee all aspects of Journal production. She left as an invaluable legacy, not just the ideals of a quality journal, but also 75 pages of detailed instructions and forms to guide the editors of the future through every step of production. While her children were younger, Sharon was able to successfully juggle ASET responsibilities with the needs of her growing family. She gave up her Journal only when the activities of her children consumed so much of her time that she felt she could not do justice to the publication. Working with her children in 4-H and other projects allowed Sharon to return to her first love, horses. Her life was very full during the eight years after giving up the Journal. As staff for the nearby racetrack, Sharon started out creating daily race forms; when her life ended she was managing the $9 million horsemen’s account. From the past, present, and future editors of the Journal and its hundreds of thousands of readers, thank you, Sharon.

– JG

From the Medical Editor’s viewpoint, collaboration with Sharon Franklin was sheer pleasure. Her journalistic instincts and intuitions were uncanny and resulted in sound guidelines for the direction the Journal had to take. Experience and expertise were the fabric of her editorial art. She seemed to float rather than to struggle through the daily necessities of that demanding work and let her co-workers know that success can be reached with clever detours. And yet, she saw the need for strategy planning. The last of the editorial planning sessions took place at the AEEGS meeting in San Diego in October 1988. She came just to discuss matters with the medical editor and we chose the wonderful San Diego Zoo as the finest possible topography-jointly gathering inspiration from the fabulous animal exhibits.

But her enthusiasm for her work started to wear a little thin and she let her co-editor know that the time was ripe “to smell the roses.” And this she evidently did (one may rightly say so if one equates roses with horses-a great bliss for her life which had to be enjoyed to its fullest extent).

My reminiscences of Sharon are those of a deeply good-hearted person (the good heart sometimes hidden by a bit of a crust). Isn’t this the most important yardstick for measuring the value of a human being?

Originally published in:

The Neurodiagnostic Journal, 37: 183–184.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1086508X.1997.11079186