Nov. 23, 1937 — Jan. 4, 2025

Sandra Risser, who began life in quiet eastern Nebraska before building a family and a professional career in Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay Area, died Jan. 4 in Ashland. She was 87.  

She led a full life that took her to all 50 U.S. states and all seven continents.

Sandra Elizabeth Laaker was born in Fremont, Nebraska, on Nov. 23, 1937, to Alice and Allen Laaker. She graduated from nearby Blair High School, from Cottey College in Missouri, and from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she met her future husband. She served as managing editor of the student paper the Daily Nebraskan, and then settled on a career in journalism.

Sandi, as she was known by all, used her journalism training in Washington, where she worked advancing equal rights for women in organizations including the National Organization for Women and the League of Women Voters.

She played a role in Democrat Walter Mondale’s 1984 presidential campaign, writing position papers on key issues and working on the staff of the presidential debates on behalf of Mondale and vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro.                                                                

In 1985, Sandi and her husband, Jim Risser, moved west to Stanford University in California, where she became assistant to the vice president for public affairs while he took on the directorship of the John S. Knight Professional Journalism Fellowships. When they retired from Stanford, they acquired a large home in San Francisco’s Noe Valley and she ran it as Hilltop Guest House from 1992 to 2001. 

A lifelong lover of theater, Sandi served on the board of directors of TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California. She and Jim started making annual trips to Ashland to attend the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In 2004, she and Jim moved there. She did volunteer work at OSF, leading members’ morning coffee groups and other activities.

Sandi died in Ashland of Alzheimer’s disease and pneumonia. She is survived by Jim, her husband of 63 years; their sons David of Milan, Italy, and John of Ashland; four granddaughters and a grandson.

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