Ipswich Chronicle, Dec. 18, 2007
Elizabeth Shurcliff Lowell
Elizabeth Shurcliff Lowell, of Concord and Ipswich, died peacefully December 11, 2007, at the home of her son Charles in Concord, as a result of a heart condition.
Mrs. Lowell was born in Boston, March 18, 1913, the fifth of six children of Arthur A. and Margaret H. Shurcliff. Her father was the eminent landscape architect who helped design Storrow Drive, the Revere Mall, as well as many college campuses in the Northeast. He was also the landscape designer of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Mrs. Lowell's mother, Margaret Homer Shurcliff, was noted for her outspoken political views, her semi-professional tennis playing, her teaching of carpentry and her ringing of tower bells in England. She introduced the art of hand-bell ringing to America.
Mrs. Lowell grew up on Mt. Vernon Street in Boston and attended the Winsor School. She made a big splash on all the sports teams but decided, on her graduation in 1931, that she was more interested in the arts and sciences for her further education.
Mrs. Lowell earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Bennington College as a member of the first graduating class in 1936. At Bennington, she studied violin with Mariana Lowell. In the summer of 1933, she attended the Thomas W. Surrette Concord Summer School of Music as a member of the orchestra. There, she met the handsome flute player, Frank Lowell, who lived in Concord. They married in 1938, while Dr. Lowell was completing his residency in medicine. After living in Cambridge for a few years, Dr. and Mrs. Lowell moved to Concord and lived in the Lowell family house on Garfield Road. Their three sons, Francis, Charles and Thomas were born between the years of 1939 and 1947. Dr. and Mrs. Lowell inherited the Garfield Road property in 1968.
After Dr. Lowell's unexpected death in late 1979, Mrs. Lowell sold most of the property. In 1994, she took up residence at Newbury Court in Concord.
During World War II, she worked for the Polaroid Co. on the development of special lenses for binoculars and for the production of the then secret Nordon Bomb Sight.
After the war, Mrs. Lowell continued her interest in music and played the viola with the Concord Orchestra for 25 years. She especially enjoyed playing string quartets with friends. She was a treasured participant of the "Music House Party," a summer retreat in Weston, Vt., where select musicians could frolic with their ensemble playing and make up funny skits for evening entertainment.
Soon after moving to Concord in 1942, Mrs. Lowell joined the League of Women Voters and took an active part in its work from then until about 1985. She became interested in Concord's town government and served on many boards and committees. In 1958, as a member of the Town Planning Questionnaire Committee, she participated in the forming of a Long Range Plan for the growth and development of Concord and became a member of the Long Range Planning Committee. She served on two different assignments over several years as a member of the committee to study the re-evaluation of the town's assessment policy for collecting property taxes. She worked with James Forrester of MIT and his assistant Lou Alfeld on a computer program to determine various ways of controlling Concord's growth and development.
Mrs. Lowell was an early advocate for the conservation of open land. She was a founding member of the Concord Land Conservation Trust and helped to establish the Concord Division of Natural Resources. Mrs. Lowell served for 27 years as a corporate trustee of The Trustees of Reservations, a conservation organization, which owns and manages properties throughout New England. She worked with Marian Thornton to preserve 700 acres of the Estabrook Woods. At Town Meeting, she persuaded the town to create the first Historic District along Lexington Road. Because of her dynamic leadership, the town of Concord has preserved its rural character and now enjoys substantial open space.
After the publication of Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" in 1962, Mrs. Lowell and her husband, Frank, helped ban the indiscriminate broadcast spraying of insecticides in the town of Concord. Dr. Lowell worked with Alan Morgan of Wayland (head of the Massachusetts Audubon Society), David Garrison of Lincoln, and Derek Till of Concord, a chemist at Arthur D. Little Co., to discourage the town from widespread spraying. Dr. and Mrs. Lowell presented the article that was finally passed in Town Meeting.
Mrs. Lowell acquired a love of sailing and cruising from her husband's family at their summer place on Cape Cod. She and her husband would pack themselves and their growing sons into a modest sailboat and then, with a Sterno stove and a good supply of Prudence corn beef hash, set sail for adventures all over Nantucket Sound.
Mrs. Lowell traveled with members of her family to many places in the western United States and Canada. She also traveled abroad to England, France, Italy, Greece and East Africa.
She is survived by her three sons, Francis C. of Falmouth and Charles R. of Concord and Thomas H. of Dummerston, Vt.; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
In accordance with her wishes, no services will be held. Arrangements are under the care of MacRae-Tunnicliffe's Concord Funeral Home.
A charitable gift in her memory may be made to: The Concord Land Conservation Trust, P.O. Box 141, Concord, MA 01742; or to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., 434 West 33rd St., New York, NY 10001.