Year Honored: 2016

Birth: 1928 - 2019

Biography

The granddaughter of a suffragette and the daughter of a state representative, Sonia S. Sloan had activism in her blood. She was the first woman to receive a degree in from Thomas Jefferson University, continuing her education to earn a master’s in microbiology. Sloan was also the first woman to be hired to the research staff at DuPont in the 1950s, but she soon left the workforce.

Instead, Sloan turned to a life of activism. She protested for the end of the Vietnam War. She Served as the Planned Parenthood of Delaware’s Board President from 1980-1984, and continued serving on the Board of Director’s until the time of her death in 2019. Sloan focused on strengthening the sustainability of organizations that serve an important public interest, including the YWCA, Public Allies Delaware, Financial Literacy Institute, the Wellness Institute, and a reformation program for youth released from the Ferris School. She was also a founding member of the Delaware ACLU, raised more than $140 million for Delaware nonprofits, and mentored generations of advocates and leaders, including Joe Biden.

Sloan was active on all of Biden’s campaigns from his first senate campaign to his 2020 bid as President. Upon her death, Biden said, “Sonny was called a firecracker, a hummingbird, the kind of person you never say no to. It was one of the greatest gifts of my life to have had her by my side – since the very beginning when I was just a kid running for the senate at 29, and throughout the decades that followed. She’d call up and always, always, give it to me straight. Sonny taught us what it means to be a Democrat, to be a Delawarean, to be an American, and to be devoted to something bigger than yourself.”
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Sources and Additional Readings

Osborne, P. (2020, February 9). Sonia 'sonny' Schorr Sloan (1928-2019) - DBT. Delaware Business Times. Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://delawarebusinesstimes.com/news/people/eight-over-eighty-sloan/

Sonia Sloan, Prominent Delaware Democratic Activist and friend to Biden, has died at 91. Philanthropy Delaware - Sonia Sloan, prominent Delaware Democratic activist and friend to Biden, has died at 91. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://philanthropydelaware.org/Philanthropy-News/8073106