Elizabeth Forbes Morison

Elizabeth Forbes Morison died on Tuesday, December 28 at Easton Memorial Hospital after suffering a stroke on Christmas day. Elizabeth was born in New Orleans, LA on September 27, 1918, the daughter of the late, Reginald Forbes and Christine Strout Forbes. Her mother died in childbirth, and for her first years she was cared for by her grandmother, the late, Louisa Lippitt Forbes, and her aunt, the late, Ruth Forbes Ogden. In 1930 her father relocated to Ambler, PA to marry the late, Elizabeth Newbold Fox. Elizabeth attended schools in Pennsylvania before entering Mt. Holyoke College in 1935. She graduated in 1939 and remained throughout her life fiercely loyal to her college and to her college friends, several of whom survive her. For Mt. Holyoke she served on the Art Advisory Committee for many years and was active in the planning and fundraising for the College's new art gallery. For her service to the College she was awarded the Alumnae Medal of Honor in 1979. In 1941 she married Benjamin Chew Tilghman of Philadelphia, and they moved to Boston where they raised four sons. In Boston she was an active volunteer in several community causes and arts organizations. She served on the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art from 1958 to 1964, and was a founding member of the Ladies Committee in support of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1967 her first marriage ended in divorce and she married the historian, Elting E. Morison of New Haven, CT. Alongside her husband she served as Master of Saybrook and Timothy Dwight Colleges at Yale University, and is remembered by a cohort of Yale students and their families as a stylish hostess and a wise counselor. Upon her husband’s retirement from Yale in 1972 they moved to Peterborough, NH, where she continued her vigorous volunteer activities, ultimately serving for four years as President of the highly regarded Sharon Arts Center in Sharon, NH. In 1976 she and her husband co-authored New Hampshire: A Bicentennial History, one of a series of state histories sponsored by the American Association of State and Local History. After her husband’s death in 1995, she moved again to her beloved Dorset, VT. When she was still a child in New Orleans she had summered in Dorset with her aunt, and in 1977 had purchased a small house on Dorset green that she had visited often in her early years. She leaves many friends in Dorset, including her first cousin, Dorothy Ogden Greenwood. In 2005 Elizabeth relocated once more to Heron Point in Chestertown, MD to be nearer her family. During her marriage to Benjamin Tilghman Sr. she had committed herself to saving and restoring The Hermitage, the Tilghman family seat in Centreville. Upon her return to the Eastern Shore she took great joy in family activities at The Hermitage involving her many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Until the end she lived in remarkably robust health, and when stricken on Christmas day she was entering the main house on The Hermitage with an armful of gifts. She is survived by her sister, Patricia Forbes Dempsey, of Wilmington, DE; her sons, Benjamin Tilghman of Centreville, MD, William Tilghman and James Tilghman of Washington, DC, and Christopher Tilghman of Charlottesville, VA; by her step daughters, Mary Morison Winby of Palo Alto, CA and Sarah Morison Ford of Wyncote, PA; and by 11 grandchildren and three step-grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. There will be a memorial service in celebration of her life at The Hermitage on January 29, 2011. In lieu of flowers the family asks that contributions be made in her name to the Office of Development; 50 Mt. Holyoke College; So. Hadley, MA 01075. Arrangements are by the Fellows, Helfenbein and Newnam Funeral Home, P. A., Centreville, MD 21617.

Elizabeth Forbes Morison

September 27, 1918 - December 28, 2010