Elizabeth C. Bellocchio

Elizabeth 'Lisa' (Ayers) Compton Bellocchio, 65, of Haverhill MA and formerly of Taunton MA, Portland OR, and Seneca Falls NY, died peacefully on August 30, 2019 at Holy Family Hospital in Methuen MA following a brief illness. She was born in Greenfield, MA while her parents, Charles Arthur and Elizabeth Pope Compton, were teachers at nearby Mount Hermon School and Northfield School, respectively. Her grandfather, Karl Taylor Compton, was the president of MIT from 1930 to 1948. She grew up in Exeter NH, where her father taught physics at Phillips Exeter Academy. Lisa began piano lessons at Ellerslie School in Great Malvern, England, where the family lived for a year while her father was an exchange professor at Malvern College. During high school at Concord Academy, she studied organ with Richard Bennet, the school organist. In 1970, she helped to relocate an historic 1872 E. & G.G. Hook & Hastings organ, Op. 676 (now at the Smithsonian) to the academy chapel. Lisa earned a degree in music and art history in 1975 from Smith College, where she studied organ with Vernon Gotwals. She served as the college carillonneur and spent an exchange year at Wesleyan University. Making music | be it with a piano, organ, carillon, flute, recorder, or a choir | and sharing it with others was a vital part of her life. Her first church organist position was at the First Baptist Church in Northampton MA. She would go on to serve as music director / organist at many different protestant churches in the various communities where she lived. Answering an ad in a regional newspaper after college graduation, she worked as a tuners assistant and installer at the Berkshire Organ Company in West Springfield MA. She later moved to New York City and became the companys local service representative. Lisa was one of the first women to pass the examination and earn a Colleague Certificate from the American Institute of Organbuilders, at the Institutes 1979 Boston convention, where she met her future husband, Matthew. They married in 1985. She served part-time, at several organ companies, as Matthews tuning assistant. At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1973-74, Lisa was a volunteer assistant to the Curator of Musical Instruments, Barbara Lambert, and did research for the two-volume Music in Colonial Massachusetts 1630-1820. In 1975, she was a Fellow in the Summer Museum Studies program at Historic Deerfield, where she researched the history of dancing and ballrooms in early New England, and presented programs and lectures based on her research. She later served for two years as Assistant Curator at the Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield MA. Using her connections with area musicians, she started the summertime Old Deerfield Sunday Afternoon Concert series, which continues to this day. In 1982 she moved to Taunton MA to become the first professional Director at the Old Colony History Museum, where she remained until 1996. She oversaw the museums first capital campaign and many improvements to the building and the collections. During her tenure the museum successfully obtained many national and local grants. While serving on the Taunton Historic District Commission, she revised and edited the second edition (1986) of Taunton Architecture: A Reflection of the Citys History. In Taunton, Lisa also served as an interim organist at St. Thomas Episcopal Church and, later, as music director / organist at St. Johns Episcopal Church and Pilgrim Congregational Church. A member of St. Thomas Church since 1983, she served on many committees, including two terms on the Vestry, co-chaired (with Matthew) the annual Lobster Roll Day fundraiser in 1990 and sewed the church banner which hangs by the organ case. She was the consultant for the restorations of historic organs at the Berkeley MA Congregational Church (c. 1834 E. & G.G. Hook) and Pilgrim Congregational Church (1890 Johnson & Son). Years later, utilizing her extensive knowledge of the areas history and pipe organs, she was the editor of the Organ Historical Societys 2005 Southeastern Massachusetts Convention Handbook, for which she wrote many entries, and served on the convention planning committee. After the family relocated to Portland OR in December 1996, she served from 1998 to 2000 as Executive Director of the Friends of Vista House, a non-profit which supports and staffs the National Register structure overlooking the Columbia River Gorge in Corbett OR. At Portlands Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Lisa served as accompanist for the childrens choir and was a substitute organist at other Portland churches. In 2000, the family moved to Seneca Falls NY, where she was Director of the Seneca Falls Historical Society for two years, then worked as Parish Administrator at Trinity Episcopal Church. She also served as Director of Music at the First Presbyterian Church, taught piano privately, and prepared and presented several historically themed concerts at the Womens Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls. Following daughter Hollys 2006 high school graduation and matriculation at MIT, the family moved to Haverhill MA. Lisa worked for three years in the Education Department of The Trustees of Reservations, training and overseeing guides at Castle Hill, the mansion on the Crane Estate property in Ipswich MA. She later worked from 2011 to 2017 as Administrator at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Haverhill and, from 2010 until her recent illness, as a part-time librarian at the Graves Music Library at Phillips Academy in Andover MA. Lisa is survived by her husband Matthew, their daughter Holly Bellocchio Durso of Abington MA, her brother Karl Compton of Rockport TX, her sister Carol Compton of Keene NH and many cousins. Her funeral service, to which friends are invited, will be held on Saturday, Sept. 28, at 11:00 a.m., at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 111 High Street, Taunton MA. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations in Lisas name may be made to the Memorial Fund of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, or to the Old Colony History Museum, 66 Church Green, Taunton, MA 02780.