Re: “Feature obituary: Sandra Featherman, visionary former UNE president, dies at 84” (April 28):

Sandra Featherman, president of the University of New England from 1995 through 2006, once told me she liked to spend her nights roaming the internet to determine what programs the university should adopt to most benefit students’ careers as well as the state of Maine.

Personally, she was a major change agent in my life. She invited me to come to UNE in 1996 with a women’s leadership policy center. “But you’ll have to raise your own money,” she admonished, and I did, but not enough to prosper.

So she threw me a bone: “Do four focus groups to see if the community will support reopening the Art Gallery.” “Yes,” everyone shouted. So she gave me the Art Gallery to run as one of my part-time assignments. She gave me a new career and a new creative life.

She was indeed, as one of her sons noted, “larger than life.” I loved her and will miss her greatly.

Anne B. Zill

Portland