Colleagues and students alike remembered Lifton, who taught at the college for 29 years, as an energetic man who cared deeply about his students and who was a top-notch professor.

Many of those closest to her sum her up in one way: Shannon was a sunflower. It was fitting, then, that sunflowers sat behind the podium during her candlelight vigil on Nov. 12 in Ithaca College’s Muller Chapel, and also dotted the service at her funeral Nov. 17 in Park Ridge, New Jersey.

“He didn’t have the opportunity to be here very long, but he was very proud to be there,” she said. “He really found a lot of camaraderie around campus, and he said it was the best place he ever worked.”