Emmy poses with her father, Hal Sigtryggsson, at her high school graduation in 2022. Courtesy | Spencer Sigtryggsson

More than a dozen Hillsdale students, including several women from the Pi Beta Phi sorority, traveled to Blacksburg, Virginia, this past weekend for Emerson Sigtryggsson’s memorial service. Sigtryggsson was a junior who died Sept. 8 after she was diagnosed with cancer in early August. 

“I got a text from someone that said Emmy’s name was synonymous with the word life, and that will never change, and that is so true,” senior Phoebe Vanheyningen said. “The way that I think everybody saw her is just alive, because that’s who she was. She made you aware that she existed, whether or not you liked it.”

The college will hold a memorial service at the college Monday, Oct. 14, at 5 p.m. in Christ Chapel. Her parents are scheduled to attend.  

“She was super kind to everyone she met, and that’s something that I really looked up to in her because she didn’t care who you were, she would be sweet to you,” sophomore Samantha Otting said. “She was the most positive person no matter what the situation was, even when she got her diagnosis.” 

Although Sigtryggsson was Catholic, she served as the youth director for Jonesville First Presbyterian Church. Every Sunday afternoon, she would lead the children through lessons and activities she planned herself, either before or after she went to Mass at St. Anthony Catholic Church. 

“She met somebody, a leader in that church, randomly at an event through the school or something, and she said, ‘Oh, we don’t have a children’s hour program,’” junior Elena Hedrick said. “And Emmy said, ‘Well, I can start it for you.’ She had to miss a week once, and so I offered to fill in for her. These kids adored her.” 

Sigtryggsson came to Hillsdale as a swimmer, but after an eye injury her freshman year, she had to retire from the team. Sigtryggsson’s advisor, Associate Professor of Management Doug Johnson, watched her walk through the change.   

“I know that was a great disappointment to her — and the effects posed significant challenges to her career as a student — but how she handled it was nothing less than impressive,” Johnson said. “Emerson would have gone on to great things — I know this.” 

According to her friends, her joy was not a sign of a life devoid of hardship. 

“She was the most joyful person, and she made everyone around her joyful too,” Vanheyningen said. “The amount of things that life threw her way, and she still smiled and laughed about it and picked herself up. And it’s because she understood life’s not over, and so it’s awesome anyway.”

Sigtryggsson was a physics major — a physics major who wore colorful sweatpants, sipped from her “pink Barbie dream cup,” and used a hot pink pen for her homework.

“You talked to anyone, and they’ve never seen her study,” junior Mason Santomero said. “She’d be in the library, but she’d be goofing off, talking, bouncing around tables. But she was so incredibly smart, and she never missed a class. I think the passion that Hillsdale has for education, just the pursuit of learning the truth, helped her flourish so much. It definitely helped her with her loving STEM, physics, and academics, but I think being around other people that loved learning and had the same type of passion for it also helped her so much.” 

Sigtryggsson spent part of the summer doing research after she was awarded funding through the LAUREATES program. Led by Associate Professor of Physics Timothy Dolch, the student research group went out to Ohio to build a radio telescope. After a week and a half, Sigtryggsson got her diagnosis, and had to go home.

“During that brief time, Emerson was an absolute joy to work with. Field work is always difficult, but she knew how to keep everyone cheerful,” Dolch said. “She could always get a conversation going. On the road trips out to the site, Emerson would come up with playlists. I never thought I would learn new Kool & the Gang songs from a student a generation after me.” 

Dolch said she was indispensable to the work that they did. 

“Everyone loved Emerson — she always brought joy and easy-goingness to any situation,” Dolch said. “Things around our department, and every part of the college she touched, just aren’t the same without her around.” 

According to her friends, Sigtryggsson could almost always be found in A.J.’s Cafe, but one thing did always change about her presence there: the people who were sitting at the booth across from her. 

“I think it was like she was friends with people from every corner of campus,” sophomore Judy Klugmann said.  “She’d be in a two-hour, late afternoon physics one-credit with her and these two boys, and then three hours later she’d be at Manning, having the best time. Nobody had more fun on a weekend.” 

Sigtryggsson is survived by her mother, Krissie, and her father, Hal, along with her three sisters Spencer, Peyton, and Elliott. As the second of four girls, Sigtryggsson loved to take care of people, family and beyond, according to her family members. 

“A lot of people at Hillsdale didn’t know [about her diagnosis], and while she would be going through harder days, she would be on the phone with her friends for hours, helping them through all of their problems and never wanting to burden them with her own,” Peyton Sigtryggsson said. “It didn’t matter what she was going through. She did it her whole life. And when it came down to such a vulnerable and hard time for her, she still did it.” 

Sigtryggsson coached kids’ swimming at home, and her extensive jewelry collection included bracelets made by the kids, which she wore until they broke. Even after they broke, she kept the threads. 

“When her kids that she was coaching had meets, you always knew because she had no voice left,” Hal Sigtryggsson said. “She was everybody’s biggest cheerleader. She just was so encouraging to everybody.”  

Whether she was in grade school learning songs on the flute for her sister when she should have been practicing, or at Hillsdale when she planned and hid her Mother’s Day present six months in advance, Sigtryggsson was known for her intentionality. 

“If you liked something, Emmy would go out of her way to learn about what you liked and invest in it, even if it wasn’t her thing, because she just thought it was so cool that it was something you loved, and she wanted to be a part of it, so she paid really good attention to a lot of those little details,” Spencer Sigtryggsson said. 

When Sigtryggsson thought she may have to go through chemotherapy, she bought earrings and made plans to spend the time making sweatshirts with the Pi Beta Phi letters on them for her sorority. According to her mom, she was excited to make use of a box of vintage scarves she had been given by her grandmother. 

“She always had a smile on her face, even when she didn’t feel like it, she always felt that she could brighten someone’s day, just by being kind and giving that big smile that she had,” Krissie Sigtryggsson said. “For me, I just think I need to learn to be more like Emmy.” 

Vanheyningen said Sigtryggsson loved the movie “Rio,” and she had a collection of Beanie Babies that resembled the characters to prove it. According to Samantha and Kaeleigh Otting, she had a formidable French Duolingo streak, to which she was very devoted, and a journal buddy that started the year writing single sentences and ended writing full pages. 

“She was one of those people that made you belly laugh where like your abs hurt afterwards, you’re wheezing, and you feel like you might have a heart palpitation going on,” senior Kaeleigh Otting said. “She was funny. Funny, not like trying-to-force-it funny. She’s got one of those laughs that if she’s in A.J.’s, laughing, you’re like, ‘Oh, Emmy’s in A.J.’s.’”

Her sister Peyton mentioned that Emmy was at peace early in her diagnosis, and that she was able to find comfort knowing she was going home to be with God. 

“Emmy taught me to love life,” junior Hailey Piwonka said. “When you talked to Emmy, you could truly know and feel that she loved her life and wanted to share her experiences and emotions with everyone around her.” 

Her friends and family said they are not focused on what she could have done, but rather, what she did while she was here for other people. 

“It’s so fascinating that Emmy was able to do something every day that people go to careers of teaching or nursing or counseling to do — that is a wonderful calling, all those career fields, and we need those people — but Emmy could do that even without having a job, and a venue, and a stage to do it,” Spencer Sigtryggsson said. “When you talk about the divine appointments, Emmy was always responsive to the divine appointments. And I think God gave her a lot of those in a short time.”