Elisabeth Koelln "Lili" MacCormick

Elisabeth Koelln MacCormick

Elisabeth MacCormick, known as Lili, died unexpectedly on Tuesday, September 30. She was 94.

Lili had a long, extremely productive, and giving life. Raised in Brunswick, Maine, the oldest of three daughters of a German immigrant family, she married Chalmers MacCormick after graduating from Wellesley with a degree in classics. In 1958, the young family settled in Aurora, where Chalmers spent his career teaching in the Religion Department at Wells College. While raising five children, Lili earned two master’s degrees—first in art history, then in education—completing the first while pregnant with her youngest.

She would go on to teach art to elementary students, with great enthusiasm, at Southern Cayuga Central School. An assortment of puppets of famous artists, which she made for teaching purposes, is now at home on the top shelves of the Aurora Free Library. After retiring, she volunteered extensively, with Habitat for Humanity, the Chapel House homeless shelter in Auburn, the Alternatives to Violence program in Auburn Prison, and the King Ferry Food Pantry. She was an active member of the United Ministry of Aurora and Auraca Herbarists. She served on the Aurora Village board of trustees and the Aurora Free Library Board. She was a loyal and loving adopted daughter of Aurora, which repaid her in kind. Always an optimist, she brought love and respect to everything and everyone she encountered.

Lili cared for Chalmers with extraordinary energy, devotion, and creativity during his long decline from Parkinson’s. Creativity was a regular theme: she had sewn her own wedding dress without a pattern, knitted and sewed clothes for all her children and grandchildren. She was a determined and capable problem solver in many areas. She tended a large and splendid garden, where she entertained friends, strangers, and returning Wells alumnae. All were encouraged to walk the boxwood labyrinth she designed and planted. She spent a great many hours weeding happily. In her eighties she undertook to walk the road to Santiago de Compostela in Spain and to visit Egypt in company with her sister Sonni.

She is survived by her children—Christopher (Mnetha), Thomas (Bernadette), Kathryn (Daniel), Marian, and Ethan (Susan); her grandchildren Walker, Rita, Glenn, Violet, Brigid, Marea and Silas; great grandchildren; and her sister, Sonni Chamberland.

A funeral service for Lili will be held at the United Ministry in Aurora at 1PM on Saturday, October 11, followed by interment at Oak Glen Cemetery. There are no scheduled calling hours, but friends are welcome to stop by the house on Dublin Hill Road, to remember Lili and walk in her garden. 

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