Andrew Sorensen plays the trumpet during a USC game.
Columbia, SC (WLTX) - On Monday many people across the state reflected on the loss of former University of South Carolina president Dr. Andrew Sorensen.
Sorensen died suddenly on Sunday at his home in Ohio. He served as president from 2002 until 2008.
Dr. Sorensen's list of accomplishments is extensive but looking back on his life you can tell it was not his worldly success that defined him but rather his relationships.
Campus on Monday looked like business as usual. But the feeling was different.
"It's a sad day at the University of South Carolina," said USC President Harry Pastides, "I can feel it. There's a weight if you will, and a heaviness, and a sadness."
Faculty, students and friends are remembering Dr. Andrew Sorensen. Many know him for his incredible ability to fit in. Even at sixty something.
"If you went to a football game," said former Columbia mayor Bob Coble, "you knew in the 3rd quarter he'd be sitting in the student section. If you went to a basketball game he'd be playing in the student band. He rode a bicycle, he wore a bowtie, he was just an all around renaissance man."
But there was a method to his ways.
"It was not just about personality," explained Pastides. "It was about forging partnerships and relationships between cities, and counties, and state government with the private sector."
One of those relationship's was forged Bob Coble.
"He transformed the relationship between the city and the university making it into a complete economic partnership."
Sorensen is responsible for creating Innovista, the universities cultural research center bringing two new buildings to campus.
"Innovista. certainly is becoming the kind of cultural place that he wanted it to be and we'll keep working very hard to advance it," said Pastides.
But one day after Sorensen's death it's probably not his buildings or his economic outreach that people are really thinking about. Those who knew him are just thinking about him.
"He was a very important man, a very measured man when it came to policy," explained Pastides. "But when it really came down to it he was someone you wanted to be around."
Dr. Sorensen's funeral will be on Tuesday in ohio. Dr. Pastides said they will be planning a memorial on campus sometime next week but no plans have been finalized yet. The cause of death has not yet been released.
Dr. Andrew Sorensen was 72-years-old and is survived by his wife, two children, and a grandchild.