Elisabeth Wakefield "Betsy" Doermann

Doermann, Elisabeth Wakefield "Betsy" 79, died in Scarborough, Maine on January 22, 2011 after a two year illness. The cause of death was lung cancer. Betsy was born in Boston and grew up in the Boston suburb of Weston. She attended The Winsor School, Vassar College, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration, a certificate program of the Harvard Business School that existed before women were admitted to its regular degree programs. Her first job, as an editor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, helped finance her husband's graduate degree. During the next two decades she ceased full time employment to be a wife, mother of three daughters, and community volunteer in Belmont, Massachusetts, and then in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In Saint Paul, Betsy returned to 22 years of full time work at the Minnesota Historical Society. From 1979 to 1992 she was the manager of the James J. Hill House, the Saint Paul home of the founder of the Great Northern Railway. She directed the restoration of the house and helped design its education and visitor tour programs. As a representative of the Historical Society, she also served as Secretary of the Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Board, a state-chartered commission with representatives from the city, county, and state governments and other partner organizations. The Board was formed to help preserve the historic story of these great Mississippi River falls (and the flour milling district they powered) during a heady late-20th century period of new construction and redevelopment along the river. The Board helped coordinate the planning and financing of several pivotal Minneapolis riverfront projects. Among the Board's signature efforts was restoration of an 1883 railroad bridge, supported by twenty one stone arches, that spans the river just below the falls. The refurbished Stone Arch Bridge was lighted, resurfaced and opened to strollers and joggers and cyclists, offering stunning views of the falls, riverfront and historic district. Bringing new life to the bridge was the work of many people. Betsy often said that being in the middle of it was the most satisfying part of her career. In a special award in 1999, the Minnesota chapter of the American Institute of Architects recognized her early planning work, completed prior to the design and construction of the new Mill City Museum. The museum was built a few years earlier by the Minnesota Historical Society on the Mississippi riverfront site of a burned-out flour mill, and tells the story of milling in nineteenth century Minneapolis. In volunteer work, Betsy served as a Director on the boards of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Saint Paul Rehabilitation Center, the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, and WCAL, the public radio station of Saint Olaf College. Betsy is survived by her husband, Humphrey, of Scarborough, Maine; three daughters, Elisabeth M. Doermann and her husband Si Durney of San Francisco, Eleanor H. Doermann of Seattle, and Julia L. Doermann of Salem, Oregon; and a granddaughter Sarah Durney. Her sister, Joan W. Millspaugh and her husband Sandy Millspaugh of Bernardsville, New Jersey; her brother-in-law, Munro Proctor and his partner Pat Irish of Palo Alto, California; and six nieces and nephews and their children also survive. Services will be at a later date at Saint Peter's Episcopal Church in Weston. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Minnesota Historical Society in Saint Paul.