Elizabeth Bennett Crowell of Concord died on December 21, 2024, after an eight-year battle with metastatic cervical cancer. She was 60.
She is survived by her wife Cheryl Flynn of Concord and teenaged children Isabel and Matthew Crowell. Liz was predeceased by her infant son James. The only daughter of the late David and Helen Crowell, she also leaves her loving brothers John (Theresa) of Kalamazoo, Michigan and twin Paul (Alexandra Stillman) of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Liz will be missed by a large network of family and friends, as well as Tucker and Patsy.
Liz was born in Orange, New Jersey, and raised in Montclair and Glen Ridge. A member of the Glen Ridge High School Class of 1982, Liz spoke fondly of her time both in the marching band and on the track team, and her high school students could easily get her sidetracked by asking about her senior prom and what it was like to go to school with the boy who would become Tom Cruise. Her time at Camp Eagle Island in the Adirondacks was another early life highlight for Liz, and she fondly remembered friends and counselors she knew.
Liz graduated from Smith College in 1986 with a degree in English literature. Making friends came easily to Liz, and many lifelong connections were made during her four years in Gillette House. She was thrilled to visit with many of them over the past year. After Smith, Liz earned an MFA in creative writing/poetry from Columbia University.
An accomplished writer and poet, Liz’s work has appeared in many publications, including The Boston Globe, Christopher Street, the Paterson Literary Review, and Another Chicago magazine. She has been a Pushcart Prize nominee and twice won the Bellevue Literary Review nonfiction contest. In addition to her own writing, Liz loved to teach others to write. She taught at both the college and high school levels, longest at Lexington High School.
To know Liz was to know wit, honesty, and true love of life. The medical cards she was dealt in 2016 were stacked against her, but she played her hand with grace and grit. When chemotherapy options offered little or no benefit but guaranteed terrible side effects, she chose no further treatment, wanting to be present and feeling her best for what she knew would be her last summer with Isabel and Matthew. She remained feeling well enough to celebrate her 60th birthday with friends from far and near as her Gillette House posse all reached the same milestone. At nearly midnight on the longest, darkest night of the year, she passed peacefully from this life that she loved so much.
A memorial service in celebration of Liz and her cherished life will take place on Saturday, January 11, 2025, at 11 a.m. at Trinitarian Congregational Church, 54 Walden Street, Concord Center. All are welcome.
Cheryl extends a heartfelt thank you to all the family, friends, and Smithies for their love of Liz and support in the most trying of times. She does not know what she would have done without you all.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donations in Liz’s memory to either of the following institutions valued by Liz: The Calculus Project, P.O. Box 850184, Braintree, MA 02185 or “Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center” with Crowell Flynn Family Gyn Oncology Fund on the memo line. Contributions can be mailed to the attention of Sarah Hart, Office of Philanthropy, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Beth Israel Lahey Health, 529 Main Street, Suite 400, Charlestown, MA 02129 or online in memory of The Crowell Flynn Family at www.bidmc.org/givenow.
Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord. To share a memory or to offer a condolence in Liz’s online guestbook, please visit www.DeeFuneralHome.com.
