BENEDICT, ELIZABETH

Elizabeth Bradley Benedict died at home in Shaftsbury, VT on September 17, 2020.

Betty greeted almost every day, for over ninety years, with a smile and iron determination to get something accomplished. She was born in New Haven, Connecticut on January 22, 1924 to Natalie Allen Bradley and Franklin Curtis Bradley. Her father was a small business owner and her mother took care of everything else. She learned at an early age that women were powerful and assumed from then on that she could do whatever she set her mind to. She graduated from Vassar College in 1944, during World War II, and moved to New York City to teach math at the Brearley School. She returned to New Haven to teach at her alma mater, the Day School, and marry Henry W. Benedict in 1946. She and Henry brought up their two boys, Brad and Ben, in the small town of Bethany, north of New Haven, where she was a member of the school board and volunteer extraordinaire. She retired in 1989, after over forty years of teaching, as the Dean of Faculty at what became the Hopkins School in New Haven. Her portrait hangs to the right of the main entrance of the school; one woman in a sea of men dating back to 1660. For all those years, there was rarely a day that she didn’t rise before the rest of the household and drop into bed last at night. Shaftsbury, Vermont became her home in retirement, her beloved husband having died in 1984. From Old Depot Road, she continued to explore the world, near and far, with unfailing curiosity. And, of course, she joined the Shaftsbury school board. She doted on her grandchildren Liza, Jared, Lincoln, and Margot, taking them on expeditions and attending school functions and athletic events.

Betty loved to learn as well as teach. She became computer-competent late in life, completing over 12,500 games of Scrabble and emailing friends and family cheerful updates. She couldn’t resist a crossword puzzle. And, everywhere she went she spoke to people and asked questions. As the story goes, after getting an ice cream cone on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence she told another ice-cream lover that he looked like Joe DiMaggio, the legendary ballplayer. He replied that he was DiMaggio. They chatted amiably as they enjoyed their cones, overlooking the Arno, then went their separate ways, quietly content to have made another new friend.

She leaves behind a legion of loyal former students and colleagues, many friends, two loving sons Brad Benedict and Ben Benedict of Shaftsbury VT, four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. She lives on in the hearts of all as a model of the power of positive thinking.

Donations may be made to the Elizabeth Bradley Benedict Scholarship Fund, Hopkins School, 986 Forest Road, New Haven, CT 06515.