Sara Lundsteen, a Professor Emerita of education who taught at UNT from 1977 until her retirement in 1999, died Aug. 25 in Dallas. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Southern Methodist University, where she was a member of Sigma Kappa sorority, and after studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, she earned her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley.

She began her teaching career in Dallas schools, and later served on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California at Santa Barbara before joining UNT. An expert in early childhood education, she was named a Regents Professor in 1992. She studied ways to help children become better problem solvers and the school environments that promote that, conducting research in Sweden.

In 1981, she was named to the International Listening Association’s Hall of Fame for her dedication to education, which not only included her own teaching and research but also her help as a consultant for schools and universities around the world. She was the author of 14 books, creating illustrations for three of them, and as a hobby she sang selections from operas and musicals at Brookhaven College.