Elisabeth Howe Colt

"Oh, Captain, my Captain!" A true Dead Poet if there ever were one.

I had Mrs. Colt in 7th grade. Words can´t describe how wonderful she was. If it means anything, I have my Sixie journal, complete with her comments. For poetry-related reasons, she gave me a tape cassette of The Best of the Band.

I would give almost anything to sit again in Franny Hutchins' back yard, admiring the grape vine and laughing with the joy of being together. I hope copies of the songs Lisa wrote have somehow survived, especially a peace ditty called something like "Here we are on Needham Common........" as she strummed away on the frigid holiday eve or in the warmth of Mother's Day surrounded by so many of us yearning for world peace. We badly need that gathering still. And then there was "The Big House" in which she was the ballast in the boat........ They don't make Lisas anymore --

The world and your family has lost a truly amazing treasure! I'd give almost anything to sit in Franny Hutchins' back yard, admiring the grape vine and laughing with joy of just being together. Also, her annual holiday eve songs set just the right note! She wrote "Here we are on Needham Common........" as we yearned for world peace and we need those pleading voices always. I hope y

Lisa was my teacher, mentor, and friend. I first met her almost 40 years ago when I was my own shy potato of a girl, a sixie at Nobles, completely out of my element. In English class, she had us keep journals that we would hand in periodically, and she would leave the most astonishing, delightful comments and drawings in response; we had quite the correspondence going there. In response to a particularly depressed journal entry of mine, she glued a feather to the page and invited me to touch it whenever I needed. Lisa was the first person who convinced me I had a voice and that poetry was a vehicle for it.

Later at Nobles, I was her student in Art Without Boundaries, and she encouraged us to push beyond any received wisdom, to keep looking and listening more keenly, to experiment, to take risks, and to be part of a group of artists who were relatively liberated despite the confines of school and culture and the terrible burden of expectations.

We remained friends long after I graduated from Nobles. It gave me particular joy to introduce her to my newborn daughter in 2007. It's not a stretch to say that Lisa's influence extended deeply into my parenting and continues to this very moment. That's how benevolently powerful she was.

Her gentleness was undergirded with a fierce love of justice. She was a woman of unparalleled relational brilliance. Few have touched my life so profoundly.

Wishing us all solace in her loss, but mostly huge joy that this giant spirit touched us all.

This is such a beautiful and spot on portrait of our beloved Lisa. I laughed a lot at the humpback whale MuMu scene, and cried as I remembered learning guitar in the Colt dining room as a teenager and getting my hands on the banned Boston newspapers---always to be found at that table. Her boundless zest for life, capacity for creativity and wonder, inspired many of us to follow her Pied Piper style into the arts. Her creativity was expressed in so many ways (365 days of self portraits!), up to and including her recent beautiful book of poems.
We will hold her spirit close always.
Ellen Driscoll

What a lovely and colorful obituary for such a lovely and colorful woman. I spoke to my husband about her just the other day even though I had not seen her in 43 years. Lisa Colt was my teacher at both Dedham Country Day School and Noble and Greenough School. She taught me the guitar with unending patience and lavish praise. I was watching a TV show with my husband and son last week and someone was singing Country Roads by John Denver. It was the first song Mrs. Colt taught me and I still remember the chord progression. That was in 1974. She was the first example I had of color and joy and irreverence and passion. I still think of her fondly. My condolences to her family and all who loved her.

As a fellow square peg in a round hole, Lisa was a beacon of creativity and gentle resistance to the prevailing attitudes of the time (I am class of `81.) As a self-involved theatre kid I never took a class with her - much to my dismay now. But I often visited friends working on projects in her classroom. It was subterranean, a cauldron of glowing weirdness and beauty just beneath the lobby and administrative offices. I couldn´t put it in to words then, but now I know I was warmed and supported by her mission and example, as I began to lay the foundations of my own creative life. Thank you, Lisa.

So very grateful to Lisa Colt who was definitely the best teacher I ever had. The big questions were always alive in her classes regardless of the subject matter. Who are we, how shall we live, and what it is the meaning we are making of it all---questions I am still answering almost 50 years later. She was the very definition of inclusive, loving the round pegs who fit smoothly and the square ones who did not--even the sometimes angry and occasionally not very likable ones like myself. Her classroom was a true haven for me. And yet she was no pushover as I learned when she gave me a C after I spent much of my first semester figuring out how to drink coffee and chatting with friends. It was a motivating grade. I went on to take every class she taught and am so very glad I did. Sending lots of love to all the Colts.

Lisa was a tremendous teacher and an amazing person. I was not an inspiring student but she had a gentle and nurturing way of bringing out the little something that resides in all of us, no matter how hidden. She turned on a switch within me that helped me understand who I was and what I was capable of doing, that there isn't one way to learn or write. I will always, always, always remember her and the many gifts she gave me.

Lisa was a remarkable teacher and human being. There was a place for everyone in her art classes at Nobles. Her energy was powerful but also gentle. One knew immediately that Lisa was not there to skim the surface but to go deep-and she wanted us all to join her. I´m remembering her kind words, her enthusiastic creativity, her feathers, and her beautiful smile. I´m so grateful to have crossed paths with Lisa and to have felt her magic. Her story of self-discovery and connection continues to inspire. How lucky we all were to know her. Her spirit lives in on in countless hearts. My deep condolences to her family and friends.

Lisa Colt had a great impact on my life. I discovered that I was an artist in her classroom. She allowed Libbet Cox, a fellow student, to teach jewelry making classes after school in the art room and I wouldn't be a jeweler of about 47 years now had she not. Lisa was a gentle and caring teacher and her artroom was a sanctuary for many of us students. I still have the drawings I made in her classroom circa 1977. I also was lucky to visit her in her home on Buzzards Bay when I became friends with her son Mark as we worked at Howie's Market in Pocasset in the summer. What a wonderful legacy she has left behind!

Lisa was one of the best teachers I had at Nobles, and ever. She made us all feel free to express ourselves, even insisting on our most honest truth each day. I will forever be grateful that my life crossed paths briefly with Lisa´s. Sending deepest sympathy to her family and friends who are left here "behind." May peace be her steady companion now and always.