Libby Atkins Remembered

By Roger Wrubel

Many of us lost a dear friend, inspiration, and role model for aging gracefully when Elizabeth “Libby” Atkins, long-time Juniper Road resident, died at the age of 94 on August 19.

I first met Libby when I interviewed to become the next director of Mass Audubon’s Habitat Sanctuary in 2000. She and her husband Elisha, who had grown up on the estate that became Habitat, let me know how much the sanctuary meant to them both, and I never forgot it.

Elizabeth Potter married Elisha Atkins when he returned from the Pacific theater of World War II in 1944. Elisha returned to school to become a medical doctor, eventually working as a medical researcher and teacher at Yale in New Haven. After raising a family, Libby, who had dropped out of Bryn Mawr College to marry, returned to the University of Bridgeport to finish her bachelor’s degree. She was a teacher and tutor in the New Haven schools and volunteered with the Cornerstone Halfway House for people with mental illness.

In 1986, Libby and Elisha “retired” and returned to Belmont to lead Habitat. Elisha was co-director and teacher, and Libby was a teacher/naturalist, gardener, and art exhibit curator. Libby and Elisha taught a class called “Trees of Mt. Auburn Cemetery” from 1986 until Elisha died in 2005. Libby continued to teach this class until she was almost 90. She and Elisha also started Habitat’s Natural History Reading Group, which Libby led until her death. The participants were so devoted that the classes were held at Libby’s assisted living home in Lincoln for the last 10 months of her life.

But she did so much more. She was politically active for most of her life and was a long-time member of the Belmont League of Women Voters. There was never an election where you would not find a campaign sign or two outside her Juniper Road home. One friend who participated with Libby for many years in a reading group said Libby was the most well-read person there. She could not think of an author Libby did not know. Libby helped manage the Bryn Mawr Bookstore on Huron Avenue in Cambridge, which sold used books to raise money for scholarships at the school, well into her nineties.

Most of all, Libby was an unrepentant optimist, devoted to finding the best in each person. I was always amazed at how easily she embraced change. When I proposed we demolish part of the original Habitat building and replace it with a new addition, Libby was on board as long as Habitat would benefit from the change. When it became apparent that Libby had to give up driving, she did not miss a beat, quickly finding other ways to get around. There are many other people from different parts of her life who knew Libby better than I did. But I know they all feel blessed to have known her, as I do.

For the past 19 years, Roger Wrubel has been director of Mass Audubon’s Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary.