Elizabeth Shurcliff Lowell, at 94; served Concord for half a century

At a recent Concord Town Meeting, the moderator asked members who had served the town for 20 years or more to stand, and a hearty crowd rose from their seats. He then asked those who had served for 30 years to remain standing. By the time he reached 50 years, there was one standing: Elizabeth Shurcliff Lowell.

The entire room then applauded a woman who had championed conservation issues and long-range planning for a half-century in the town.

"She was very modest, and she was not one to get in people's way, but I know that she appreciated the gratitude," fellow Town Meeting member and longtime friend Gordon Shaw said.

Mrs. Lowell, who also excelled at the viola, died Dec. 11 from a heart condition at the Concord home of her son Charles. She was 94.

For decades, she worked to preserve open spaces in Concord, leading various committees through complex issues as development crept into the historic town. She helped to found the Concord Land Conservation Trust, which would either inherit or buy up pieces of land that would then be added as space for trails, parks, and public recreational areas.

She frequently spoke up at the annual town meetings on conservation issues, and often signed up to work on town committees, such as the Long Range Planning Committee, and a committee on the town's property-value assessment.

While she was strong in her convictions, "She was very open-minded," said another son, Francis of Falmouth.

At one Town Meeting, she helped to successfully lobby for the creation of a historic district in the town, along Lexington Road, and at another meeting she and her husband, Frank, helped rid the town of indiscriminate, broad spraying of insecticides, following the publication of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring."

"She was of the proper Bostonian world," Shaw said. "She spoke as though she was teaching something. She came across foremost as not lecturing, but with a great deal of strength - a very deliberate delivery."

But it was not just her voice that carried weight in Concord. As a viola player, she performed in the Concord Orchestra for a quarter century and would often play in quartets. When her hearing started to fail, she switched to electronic viola.

"She was a very determined woman," her son Charles said.

She was also very adept at working with wood - she made bookshelves and other items.

Mrs. Lowell was born in Boston as the fifth of six children of Arthur and Margaret Shurcliff. Her father was an eminent landscape architect who helped design Storrow Drive and Colonial Williamsburg, and her mother, a semi-pro tennis player, helped introduce hand-bell ringing to the United States.

Mrs. Lowell attended the Winsor School and earned her bachelor's degree from Bennington College in 1936. She met her husband, a flute player, while attending a summer program for musicians. They lived in Cambridge before moving to Concord.

Her husband died in 1979, and in 1994 she sold most of her property and moved to Newbury Court in Concord.

During World War II, she worked for the Polaroid Co. to help develop special lenses for binoculars and the closely guarded Norden bombsight, which improved the accuracy of bombs.

"She had a very good sense of structure," her son Charles said.

Mrs. Lowell leaves a third son, Thomas of Dummerston, Vt.; two granddaughters, two grandsons, and two great-grandchildren.