Ellen Beyer

BEYER, ELLEN Ellen Beyer's lifelong love of cooking led her to amass a remarkable cookbook collection of nearly 4,000 volumes. And as the wife of Brown University professor Robert Beyer, Ellen applied her college chemistry training, and her interest in good food, to cooking not only for her own family, but also for Brown faculty, Cub Scouts and Brownies, numerous lucky classmates of her children, and generations of foreign students who attended International House potluck luncheons or were invited to her home for Thanksgiving feasts.

Mrs. Beyer died on Monday at Roger Williams Hospital. She was 84.

But her memory lives on in the stories her family and friends have about her cooking. 'I cook like a chemist,' Ellen frequently stated - and to her that meant cooking with discipline. But she also had a flair for meal planning and recipe selection, and her eclectic cooking interests led her to start buying cookbooks. The bulk of her collection is now shelved for future generations of cooks at Johnson & Wales University. 'I've spent 50 years of my life putting this collection together,' said Ellen at the time of her donation. 'I wanted to ensure that my books have a good home and are used as a resource. I know they're in good hands at Johnson & Wales.'

Ellen's cooking took her from a tiny apartment with a shared bath that she lived in as a new bride to the sunny kitchen with stainless steel appliances that was the result of a remodeling at their East Providence home in the 1980s. 'I finally got the kitchen I always wanted!' enthused Ellen.

Ellen was born in 1921 to Richard and Margaret 'Bess' (Logan) Fletcher in New York City, the oldest of three children. She grew up in Floral Park, NY, where she lived until she was married - except for a stint in the 1930s. Her father decided during the Depression to 'go back to the farm', and took his urban family to live in Salisbury, MD for four years, where Ellen gamely worked the land, fed the animals, and helped her mother to can fried chicken. 'I never wanted to touch dirt or eat watermelon again,' she said. Ellen's relationship with her mother was memorialized in a sweet and witty story entitled 'A Plate of Peas' written by her son, Richard, and included in a 2001 anthology of stories edited by Paul Auster. It contained an immortal line of Ellen's: 'You ate them (the peas, that is) for money, you can eat them for love.'

After graduating from Sewanhaka High School in Nassau County, NY, Ellen went on to Hofstra University in Hempstead. Hofstra offered Ellen the opportunity to apply her considerable academic skills (she earned her B.S. there in 1943) and also to meet her future husband when their paths crossed in physics and chemistry classes. Bob graduated first in their class and Ellen second - Ellen said it was because she was having romantic problems that a few Bs were able to slip in among the As in her transcript.

After graduation, Ellen went to work as a chemist at Pfizer until she married Bob on Valentine's Day in 1944. The new bride moved to Ithaca while her husband completed his doctorate, and then to Providence in 1945. As a Brown University faculty wife, Ellen threw her- self into university activities, including active membership in the Ladies of the Faculty.

When the Beyers moved to Riverside in 1950, Ellen joined the League of Women Voters, and also started an active career as a volunteer with Scouting. She also began visiting patients on Sundays at the Hattie Ide Chaffee Home in East Providence, where she was a regular for more than 35 years. When the Beyers moved to East Providence in 1963, Ellen and Bob became communicants at St. Martha's, and Ellen turned her considerable volunteering skills to supporting her new parish.

Ellen was fiercely devoted to her family, and her son Richard recalls a letter she wrote to him when he was having problems in college: 'Mothers are for sharing sorrow as well as joy, failures as well as successes.' She was an equal partner in an amazing, unshakeable marriage - Father Jude McGeough, their pastor at St. Martha's, described the Beyers as 'two hearts beating as one.'

One of the perks of college life was the opportunity for Bob to take several yearlong sabbatical leaves. The Beyers spent sabbaticals in Los Angeles, CA; Stuttgart, Germany; Birmingham, England; Austin, TX; and State College, PA. Each of these was an occasion for Ellen to pack up her home and cart her children off to a new community with new schools, new friends, new grocery stores, and new recipes! Her daughter Catherine particularly remembers the trip to Germany: 'We had 17 pieces of luggage, including cases of formula for my 6-week old sister. It's hard for me to imagine now how any woman with four children including a baby could so calmly board that boat in New York for a year in a foreign country, but she took it all in stride.'

In 1974, Ellen and her daughter Margaret started a tradition of taking each grandchild to Disneyworld when he or she turned six, a tradition Margaret intends to continue with Ellen's youngest granddaughter. 'She had such a fun-loving side,' recalls Margaret. 'She loved to dress in costume at Halloween, and would break out in song at a moment's notice. Two of her favorites were 'Alice Blue Gown' and 'Among My Souvenirs' and we've all learned the words!'

Ellen derived great pleasure from her grandchildren. She was especially supportive of the adoption of two Chinese baby girls by her daughter, Mary. 'We always had all those international students around the table,' recalls Mary. 'That really planted the seed in me that ultimately blossomed in my making the choice to pursue a Chinese adoption.'

Mrs. Beyer leaves her husband, Robert; four children: Catherine Beyer Hurst of Cambridge, MA; Margaret Beyer of Rockville, MD; Richad Beyer of Lexington, MA; and Mary Beyer Trotter of Olympia, WA; and seven grandchildren: Brian and Timothy Hurst; Roberta and Andrew Beyer; and Julie, Rachel, and Faith Trotter.

Her funeral will be held Friday at 9 AM from the PERRY-McSTAY FUNERAL HOME, 2555 Pawtucket Avenue, East Providence, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 10 AM in St. Sebastian's Church, Cole Avenue, Providence. Burial will be in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, East Providence. Calling hours Thursday 5-8 p.m. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to International House, 8 Stimson Avenue, Providence, 02906 or Hallworth House, 66 Benefit Street, Providence, 02904.