Elizabeth "Libby" Backofen

1924 - 2022

Elizabeth "Libby" Backofen

Plainfield, NH - Elizabeth (Libby) Warren Backofen died on Tuesday, December 20, 2022, at the age of 98. She was born in Orange, Massachusetts, to Asaph Wood and Amber Estelle (Spring) Warren on April 22, 1924. She graduated from Orange High School in 1942 as best student and best athlete, and from Simmons University in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Chemistry. Her first employer was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the Manhattan Project (1946 – 1947), The Electrical Engineering Department (1947-1949), and finally as a radiochemist in the Physics Department. (1949 – 1960).

She married MIT Professor Walter A. Backofen on August 6, 1950. They lived in Boston until 1957 when they moved to Marblehead. She substituted in Marblehead and Salem high schools in the mathematics and chemistry departments, as well as tutoring many high school students in Algebra, geometry, and chemistry. In 1968 she received a Masters in Education from Salem State College with concentration in mathematics.

In 1961 she and her husband bought the property on William Gage Road in Plainfield, New Hampshire, and moved there permanently in 1976. In 1965 the first 2000 Christmas trees were planted and in 1978 they opened Hill Farm Christmas Trees, the first choose-and-cut operation in the Upper Valley, and in 1979, pick-your-own blueberries. From 1973 to 1987 they operated Hill Farm Antiques. During this time they restored the ca. 1785 William Gage homestead, and moved and reconstructed the Plainfield District No. 12 Schoolhouse. They also moved to their property several buildings that were slated for demolition: a corn barn from the Stearns' farm on poverty lane, an ancient barn from the Clyde Davis acreage on Eaton Road (East Plainfield) and from Croydon, the last plastered outhouse in the state.

She bowled in local leagues for many years and in State, Tri-state, Green Mountain, and National Tournaments. She particularly liked vegetable gardening, her large garden (about 4000 square feet) shrinking over the years finally to asparagus and rhubarb after her husband died in December of 2006.

Libby will not have any public services. She is survived by friends and neighbors in the Upper Valley. For memorials, gifts may be given in her memory to the Elizabeth Backofen Endowed Fund at Simmons University, 300 The Fenway, Boston MA 02115 Attn: Office of Advancement, or the Visiting Nurse & Hospice of VT and NH, P. O> Box 881, Brattleboro, VT 05302

An online guest book is available to leave a message of condolence by visiting www.rickerfuneralhome.com