Sandra "Dayashakti" Scherer

03/08/2003

Sandra "Dayashakti" Scherer, 60, of 12 Water St., Housatonic, died Saturday at home after a 10-month struggle with cancer. Born in Two Rivers, Wis., on Feb. 23, 1943, daughter of Edward and Marion Bebeau Doidge, she attended high school in Oreland, Pa., and received her bachelor of arts degree in English from Pennsylvania State University in 1964. She did postgraduate work at Cornell University's School of Human Ecology from 1971 to 1973. Ms. Sherer was a founding member and longtime teacher and program director of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. She joined the center in 1973 in Sumneytown, Pa., and moved to the Berkshires when it relocated to Lenox in 1983. In 1993, she left Kripalu to create a personal development approach, called "Wave Work," designed to integrate the body, mind and emotions, and founded the Wave Work Institute. Since then, she had trained many therapists and relationship counselors in the approach. She participated in a variety of beauty pageants during her high school and college years, winning titles as Miss Philadelphia, Miss New Hope, Miss Hershey and as first runner-up in the Miss Pennsylvania pageant. Besides her parents, of Venice, Fla., she leaves a son, John Jacob Edward "Jay" Scherer of Spokane, Wash.; a brother, Doug Peterson of Two Rivers, and her former husband and longtime friend, John J. Scherer of Spokane, whom she married in 1965 in Richmond, Va. FUNERAL NOTICE -- A celebration of the life of Sandra "Dayashakti" Scherer will be held Saturday, March 15, at noon at Richmond Congregational Church in Richmond. There will be no calling hours. Funeral arrangements are being made through FINNERTY & STEVENS FUNERAL HOME, 426 Main St., Great Barrington, MA 01230. She also leaves her daughter-in-law, Lizanne Scherer, and her former husband and longtime friend John J. Scherer. She was a much-beloved teacher, counselor, mentor and friend.

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