Elizabeth Lee, 93; teacher inspired many, aided library

Elizabeth (Clark) Lee was one of those teachers students never forgot. She challenged and inspired them to appreciate the magic of language in poetry, literature, and creative and expository writing. Many students followed her into the teaching profession.

One of them, William Bronk, a student in her first class in 1933 at Hudson Falls High School, north of Albany, N.Y., won the American Book Award for Poetry in 1982. He told people Mrs. Lee had been his mentor, introduced him to English poetry, and encouraged him to write.

As she had with many former students, Mrs. Lee corresponded with Bronk until his death in 1999. She was talking about him with his biographer not long before her death Dec. 1 of respiratory failure in St. Francis Hospital in Hartford. She was 93.

Mrs. Lee lived in Dedham, where a bench in front of the Dedham Public Library on Church Street is dedicated in her honor. She ran the library's monthly book sale from 1979 to 1996, raising more than $36,000 for its programs and equipment.

From 1950 to 1972, Mrs. Lee taught English at Newton High School. "Mrs. Lee was wonderful, thoughtful, and particularly animated while teaching poetry," recalled Judith Malone Neville, a former student there and now the assistant superintendent of schools in Newton. "She was exacting and demanding in wanting us to be precise in our writing, but she was one of those teachers who listened carefully to what her students had to say. She treated us as equals and appreciated us a lot."

Mrs. Lee maintained many of those relationships over the years. Lyman Gilmore,, a retired college professor who is writing a biography on Bronk, said Mrs. Lee had donated a valuable collection of her letters from Bronk to the rare books and special collections department at Columbia University, where Bronk's papers are kept.

Gilmore, of Antrim, N.H., was captivated by his last meeting with Mrs. Lee in Dedham. "Here was this woman in her 90s with this wonderful sort of ebullience, vitality, and a great kind of joie de vivre," he said.

In truth, Mrs. Lee's nephews and great niece said, there was more than an ounce of Auntie Mame in the spirit of their adventurous "Aunt Liz," who had spent almost four years in Europe just after the war and traveled widely.

"Liz was very independent-minded her whole life -- and fearless," said her nephew Joel Clark of Bloomfield, Conn. "German U-boats were still attacking Atlantic convoys when she sailed to England in 1945."

Mrs. Lee was born in Schenectady, N.Y., to George R. and Margaret (Wilkie) Clark. She graduated from high school in 1928, the class valedictorian. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College, took graduate studies at the University of Michigan and the University of Colorado, and earned a master's degree in English literature from Boston University.

In 1933, Mrs. Lee began teaching at Hudson Falls, eventually becoming head of the English Department. From 1945 to 1948, Mrs. Lee was in Europe, working as a staff assistant with the American Red Cross and attached to the US Army in a variety of roles, one in which she prepared GI brides for life in the States. When she returned to the United States, she wrote a syndicated travel column. Along the way, Joel Clark said, she married John Lee. They were divorced in 1954.

Her nieces and nephews found Mrs. Lee irrepressible. "Aunt Liz had boundless energy," said her great-niece Polly Clark of Darien, Conn. "Even though she was 60 years older than me, I sometimes had to pause for breath before she did . . . She was so exuberant about life and learning that she did not want to miss a moment of opportunity."

And no one, Clark said, would leave her great-aunt's house without at least one book. "Once she had a sense for your taste in books, she would hunt for the perfect fit," Clark said. "Even the postmen and newspaper boys would receive especially selected books along with their holiday bonuses."

After retiring in 1974, Mrs. Lee remained active with the Dedham library and also with an antiquarian book dealership, Books, Etc., that she ran out of her home.

"Liz would haunt the area library book sales, getting there as early as possible, dashing to beat other book dealers to that month's cream of the discards," Joel Clark said. "I suspect the influx exceeded the outflow. I think she liked having the books and didn't really want to sell them anyway."

In addition to her nephew and great-niece, Mrs. Lee leaves another nephew, George, of Manhattan, Kan.; two other great-nieces; two great-nephews; and five great-great-nieces and -nephews. Graveside services will be held in the spring at Viewland Cemetery in Rotterdam, N.Y.