Sandy Golden, age 74 of Tyrone, Georgia, passed away from cancer on January 4th, 2021. Sandy grew up in the Oakland City/West End area of Atlanta and attended Mercer University during the 1960s when the University was deeply involved in the civil rights movement. From those pivotal years, she carried with her a lifelong commitment to social justice.
She earned a master’s degree in psychology from Indiana University and an interdisciplinary PhD from Emory University. For 16 years, she taught at Mercer University Atlanta followed by 18 years at Clayton State University. She designed the 5-course curriculum in Human Services at Clayton State, carefully including practical skills as well as theoretical knowledge in each course.
After retirement in 2010, she found a whole new life developing food gardens. Following training as a Master Gardener in Fayette County, she worked with staff and teachers a R.J. Burch Elementary, Flat Rock Middle School, and Sandy Creek High School to create organic gardens supporting educational programs and strengthening the ecology of local community. She also worked with her church, Hopewell UMC, to establish two large pollinator gardens and a 22-raised bed community garden.
From a fellow church member, Sandy learned to quilt, and when it was too cold or wet to be in the garden, she loved making warm, colorful quilts-giving away many as the opportunity arose.
Sandy was blessed to have Bob Golden her loving husband, Will Whitehead her adopted son, her brother Rod Harrison and sister-in-law Anna Thornhill, and a number of lifelong friends who stood by her side as she struggled through the last stages of her third type of cancer. A private ceremony will be held at Carmichael-Hemperley Funeral Home and Crematory, with a celebration of life ceremony open to the public to be held later in the year, when COVID is less of a threat. In lieu of flowers, make donations to Hopewell United Methodist Church, Tyrone, Georgia.
Carmichael-Hemperley Funeral Home, Peachtree City, is in charge of arrangements.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18