Elizabeth Sanders

Elizabeth Sanders was born in Athens, Alabama on May 13, 1943. As the oldest of four siblings, she helped her mother, Mildred (Millie or Mimi to her family) take care of her sister Joyce and brothers Joseph and Richard. Setting a pattern for her life, as a child, Elizabeth was steadfastly loyal to family and friends, generous and kind to everyone she knew.

Millie taught third grade in Cullman, Alabama, and imparted to Elizabeth her love of learning and educating. Elizabeth embraced both these callings throughout her life. After graduating from high school, she helped to build and operate a school in Valparaiso, Chile, in between earning degrees at Auburn University and Georgetown. In 1978, Elizabeth received her Ph.D. in American government from Cornell University, and from that point on devoted her life to teaching and inspiring her own students.

While a graduate student at Cornell, Elizabeth met her husband, Richard Bensel, a fellow scholar with similar academic interests. For most of their academic careers, Elizabeth and Richard taught in the government departments of the same universities. They specialized in different aspects of American history, but read and critiqued each other’s work with enthusiasm. Political debates at the dinner table were many, and while concessions were rare, each participant gained wisdom from the experience.

As a professor, Elizabeth taught at Auburn University and Rice University, then for many years at the New School for Social Research in New York City. She ultimately returned to her alma mater, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she taught for almost three decades before her retirement in 2019. She wrote two prize-winning academic books, The Regulation of Natural Gas: Policy and Politics, 1938-1978 in 1982 and Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State, 1877-1917 in 1999, published numerous articles in academic journals, frequently presented papers and served on panels at conferences, and gave freely of her time to journalists, who often sought her opinion and analysis regarding American politics and international relations.

Academic excellence was foundational to Elizabeth, and she held herself to the highest professional standards. She was never afraid to disagree with prevailing wisdom and accepted narratives, but she did so with tact and courtesy, motivated by a desire to convince rather than defeat those scholars with whom she disagreed.

Even as her country grew ever more politically polarized, Elizabeth remained steadfastly nonpartisan. She cared deeply about many issues, but she had no allegiance to either major party, as she had serious reservations about each of their platforms. As a result of her political independence, Elizabeth was able to maintain lifelong friendships with people across the political spectrum, and she helped to place her students in important positions with major corporations, institutions, universities, and politicians of both parties.

Elizabeth was devoted to her students, not least her own son, Seth, whom she taught to think critically and write persuasively from a young age. As he grew older, their political discussions evolved into passionate debates, but their shared values usually led to one of them convincing the other, and each gained understanding from the other’s perspective.

As a university student, Elizabeth had been active in the civil rights movement and a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War. Her devotion to a wide range of local, national, and global causes was unwavering throughout her academic career, and continued beyond her retirement in 2019. Elizabeth advocated for the American labor movement, environmentalism, and a less militaristic foreign policy. She was also widely read in the field of nutrition and continually updated a document she titled, “Dr. Sanders’ Health Tips”, which she distributed each year to her students. She practiced what she preached, and committed to a vegetarian diet along with her son.

Elizabeth stayed physically active throughout her life. She was an avid bicyclist who rode to the Cornell campus from her Ithaca home each day, and enjoyed long walks through her neighborhood of Forest Home. Within her local community association, she advocated for more sidewalks and a safer environment for bikers and pedestrians. She felt that urban planning over-prioritized the interests of motorists, and believed that both human health and the environment would benefit if people were less reliant on motor vehicles.

On December 2, 2024, while visiting her hometown of Cullman with her son and helping him to buy a home in north Alabama, Elizabeth was fatally struck by a car as she crossed the street. The outpouring of condolences and messages of appreciation that have been received following her passing leave no doubt that she deeply touched many lives, and did all that she could to leave the world a better place than she found it. Selfless, kind, and generous with her knowledge and time, Elizabeth lived by the words of the philosopher Emmanuel Kant, whom she was known to fondly quote:

“Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law.”