.JPG)
|
Light a Candle
Ayse Somersan, born August 15, 1941 in Istanbul, Turkey, crossed the bar on April 17, 2017. She was a champion swimmer in Turkey during the fifties, with 54 records to her name. She attended Robert College in Istanbul, where she met her husband Ergun. They were married in 1965. She did her graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Fulbright scholarship, graduating with a Ph.D in international economics in 1969. She was on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Wisconsin-Extension for 25 years. She served as the dean and director of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension from 1988 to 1996. Upon retirement, she accepted a position as economics professor and vice-president at Koc University in Istanbul. Ayse’s special talent was to make economics understandable and enjoyable, both in the classroom and to thousands of adult audiences around the country. She was active in the Democratic Party and was involved in a multitude of environmental and social organizations.
