Scott Sorensen-Jolink died peacefully in the early evening of Aug. 1, 2020, at the age of 70.
Michael Scott Sorensen-Jolink was born in Fairmont, Minn., on June 6, 1950, the second of three children of Albert and Martha Alice Scott Jolink. He was always called “Scott.”
Scott is survived by his loving spouse and best friend of more than 45 years, Leslie Sorensen-Jolink; his beloved children Emma (Shay) and John Sorensen-Jolink (Fabien Dubuet); sisters Jan Hamm and Susan (Andrew) Tomasko; two grandchildren; three nieces and four nephews; brother-in-law Mark Sorensen; sister-in-law Shelley McDaniel (Rick), and an extensive network of wonderful relatives and friends. Scott was preceded in death by his parents, his brother-in-law Otto Hamm and his mother-in-law Harriet Sorensen.
Once their children were old enough, Scott and Leslie expanded their family with three dogs: Rosie (Golden Retriever, 1993-2003), and extraordinary rescue dogs Henry (Golden Retriever, 2003-2017) and Bob (Long-Haired Dachshund, 2006-).
Before that, their family shared life with many small pets, including a parakeet, several chinchillas and Fred the Rabbit.
Childhood
When Scott was two years old, his family moved to Edgerton, a town of 1,000 on rolling prairie of southwest Minnesota where his parents had been born and raised. For his entire life, family was everything to Scott, and he surely learned this value growing up surrounded in Edgerton by a large, loving immediate and extended family.
In 1960, the Edgerton High School boys basketball team won the Minnesota State High School Basketball Tournament. In a time before school sports were divided by school size, the Edgerton Flying Dutchmen swamped Austin, a much larger school, in the title game. Ten-year-old Scott probably learned three life lessons from watching that win: first, I can play basketball like that someday, and he did; second, people who grew up in tiny Edgerton can do big things; and third, to be successful in a small school in a small town (or anywhere), everyone has to get involved.
Scott’s parents modeled a sense of responsibility to serve others through a host of civic, church and school activities, and that type of service became a hallmark of Scott’s life as well. In Edgerton, Scott was a Boy Scout, sang in several choirs, played trombone in band, played basketball and pitched on the baseball team, managed the community swimming pool, and was Valedictorian of his high school class.
As Scott had been involved in so many activities in high school, it was not surprising that he chose to attend a college with a wide range of offerings. Following in the footsteps of his Edgerton first cousin Curt Vanderstoep ‘69, Scott enrolled at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, in 1968. He played baseball his first two years. He also played basketball his first year and then went on to become a trainer, organizing and leading a larger team of student trainers. In his third year Scott decided to audition for Luther’s renowned Nordic Choir. When he learned he was accepted into that prestigious choir, Scott had to choose whether to continue playing baseball or give it up to follow his voice. His baseball coach made the decision easier for him: “Scott, you’re a good baseball player, but if you have a chance to be in a choir as great as the Nordic Choir, I think you should take it.”
He made a good choice. Like thousands of Nordic Choir members before him, singing with director Weston Noble ‘43 was a life-changing experience. Years later, Scott would describe the Nordic Choir on his resume as “absolutely the best college choir in the world.” During the summer after he graduated from college, Scott was the manager of the Nordic Choir’s 1972 performing tour through Romania and other parts of Eastern Europe.
Singing in performance was always a central passion for Scott. He was a gifted bass-baritone who grew up singing in his church choirs, which his mother led, and was a soloist and chorister his entire adult life. After graduating from law school, Scott sang for many years with the Choral Arts Ensemble and the Portland Symphonic Choir, as well as with the choirs at St. Mark Presbyterian Church, Frog Pond UCC Church and First Congregational UCC Church in Portland.
Moving West
After graduating from Luther, Scott was admitted to several law schools and left the Midwest not sure which of them he would attend. He loaded up his trusty yellow Chevy Malibu (“Hawkeye”) and his bike (“Chingachgook”), both named after characters from The Last of the Mohicans, and headed West figuring he'd visit each law school before making a decision. When he reached Portland he was immediately captivated by the natural beauty in and around it. To have the Pacific Ocean and the mountains of the Cascade Range within two hours of downtown seemed too good to be true. Scott enrolled at Portland's Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College in August of 1973 and met Leslie (a law student in his class) soon after.
In 1975, Scott and Leslie married. They had a civil ceremony before Judge George Van Hoomissen in his chambers at the Multnomah County Courthouse on April 29, 1975, and a spiritual ceremony before Reverend Dr. Richard Rohrbaugh that was also the Sunday service at St. Mark Presbyterian Church on July 6, 1975.
Scott joined his new wife in taking the surname “Sorensen-Jolink,” which combined the surnames with which each of them was born. Throughout their marriage, Scott and Leslie worked together very well. As spouses and as parents, they defied traditional gender-based roles. Leslie focused upon proposing and planning, Scott on executing the plans. Almost from the start, they faced some very daunting challenges, always united. While remaining two distinct individuals, they were in key ways as close as romantic partners could be. Each of them knew that the other was completely committed to their marriage, and that yielded a bond of trust that never was breached. They truly and deeply loved each throughout their life together, and that love will guide Leslie in all that she does for the rest of her life.
After graduating from law school and passing the Oregon State Bar examination, Scott began what would become a long and esteemed Oregon career in family law, helping people as an attorney, mediator, reference judge, judge pro tem, arbitrator, and parent coordinator. One aspect of his practice that stood out was his devotion to children. Whatever a family’s situation, he always maintained that the interests of children came first. He was a tireless advocate and protector of children from the time he began his practice in 1977 until a few days before he died.
Not long after Scott started his legal career, he and Herb Trubo, an attorney who had participated in hiring Scott into his first job as an attorney, decided to become law partners. Together, they opened and then led their firm, Sorensen-Jolink Trubo, for four decades. Scott became a well-respected leader in his field. Among his many professional memberships, committees, and honors, he was a member of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and a founding member of the Oregon State Bar Section on Family and Juvenile Law. In 2018 he was appointed as a pro tem judge in the Multnomah County Circuit Court. He also co-authored chapters in the OSB Family Law Handbook.
Kids
For all that he accomplished personally and professionally, nothing was more important and fulfilling to Scott than parenting his children, Emma and John. He was an incredibly involved, loving, and dedicated parent. Scott cared deeply about his children and actively loved them with open arms every day. When they were young he invited them into his passions - teaching them everything from singing to skiing - and then he encouraged them to find their own. When they did, their passions became his passions, and he immersed himself in their interests.
Many of Scott’s passions revolved around water, snow, and mountains, all of which could be found in abundance in the Northwest. Many weekends the family could be found sailing on the Willamette and Columbia Rivers or, later, zipping along in Scott’s trusted motorboat, a vintage fishing boat powered by a Chevy Nova engine. They always had a dog or two in that boat, and everyone always ended up in the water. Maintaining and fixing the motorboat was a cottage industry but one that Scott enjoyed immensely.
Scott loved skiing and started teaching Emma and John to ski when they were quite young. Emma reports that when John was very small, the three of them (and Leslie when her work permitted) would go cross-country skiing on Mt. Hood—John in a sled pulled by a rope around Scott’s waist and Emma skiing alongside. By the end of the outing, Emma would often also be in the sled with John, Scott happily pulling them both down the trail.
Like Scott, both children were talented and had wide-ranging interests to which Scott devoted himself completely: choir, orchestra, soccer, baseball, basketball, horseback riding, dance. Scott did not just drive them to lessons and practices; he coached many of their sports teams for twelve years from 1985-1997. Scott hadn’t played soccer growing up but he wanted to coach their soccer teams, so he taught himself to play. He was so convincing that John did not realize until years later that Scott had never played soccer himself.
In May of 1989, Scott, Leslie, Emma and John travelled to New York City for Scott and Emma to sing in a performance of Erik Funk’s opera Pamelia at Carnegie Hall. Emma was in the children’s chorus, and Scott, ever the supportive parent, joined the Portland Opera Chorus so he could sing with Emma.
When, at 14 years old, John began seriously studying dance, Scott threw his enthusiastic support behind his son and the Jefferson Dancers, the performing arts high school dance company of which John became a member. That support continued throughout John’s dance studies at New York University and his subsequent career as a dancer and choreographer.
Scott was always a member of a church and an active participant and behind-the-scenes leader in the life of his church community. He was a good neighbor on Luray Terrace for almost 35 years, always helping and often leading.
When Scott died, he had been fighting melanoma since July 16, 2018, and had undergone a variety of challenging treatments, including several types of immunotherapy, two surgeries, targeted therapy and radiation. During that illness, he continued to work and live his life, doing the things that he loved to do, as much as he could. He succumbed suddenly to the effects of both the last treatment he was undergoing and the underlying cancer.
A Person You Didn’t Forget
Scott was a natural leader. He was a big presence who changed the energy of a room when he walked into it. He made people feel comfortable and gained their trust with his sincere words, his calming tone, and his grounded body language.
Scott's sister Sue writes that “Scott was a person you didn’t forget. He had a way of drawing you in, in a kind and welcoming way – telling stories, making you laugh, and also pulling your leg - all the while entertaining whoever might be around. He was also great at motivating everybody to `do stuff’ when we were together, whether we were putting up pictures, visiting friends or relatives, hiking, going to the ocean or heading out in the boat on the Willamette River. He loved activity and all the fellowship it brought to life.”
Scott’s baseline in life was a joyful energy borne of helping people in every way he could. He was passionate and compassionate. He was funny, irreverent, genuine, stubborn, optimistic, exasperating, and smart. He was all these things and more, and we miss him terribly and are eternally grateful for his life and the time we got to spend with him.
Please share a memory or well wishes on Scott’s OregonLive Legacy.com site.
The time and place of an in-person celebration of Scott's life will be announced as soon as possible after it is safe to gather. If you want to be sure to be informed of the details of a future gathering, please email [email protected]. Scott’s family can’t wait to see you.
Donations may be made in Scott’s name to The American Civil Liberties Union, First Congregational Church UCC of Portland, Golden Bond Rescue (of Oregon and Washington), The Portland Symphonic Choir, Luther College, Doctors Without Borders, or another organization of your choice.