Elizabeth (Betsy) Stiles Knight

Elizabeth (Betsy) Stiles Knight passed away from cancer on January 15, 2017.

She was born in La Grange, IL, in 1960, and attended Lyons Township High School in Western Springs, IL. She earned a BS in environmental science and journalism at Butler University in Indianapolis, and a Master of Library and Information Science at the University of Washington. She also earned certifications as an archivist and digital archives specialist. At Butler she pledged the Delta Gamma sorority, which was the source of many lasting friendships.

Betsy’s lifelong love of astronomy began with a view of Saturn through the telescope at Butler University. She often mentioned that it changed her life forever. After college she worked for many years at the Cernan Space Center in River Grove Il, and the Adler Planetarium in Chicago Il, writing, and producing planetarium shows, and giving astronomy classes and lectures. She met her husband Dan under the stars inside the dome of the Adler Planetarium. Later, she managed the Challenger Learning Center, a space education program at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. Her love of science and learning eventually led her to become a science teacher, a science librarian and an archivist. She worked in several university libraries and archives over the years, including a five-year stretch at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, an institution she dearly loved.

Though her love of astronomy began with a view of a planet, it was galaxies and cosmology that were her true passion. Until shortly before her death she continued to observe galaxies with her 13.1 inch Dobsonian telescope. Using only a star chart and her trusty Telrad finder, she tracked down all of the Messier objects as well as 221 Herschel galaxies.

Aside from her interest in science and astronomy, Betsy also loved ballet, which she began studying in high school and continued to study all her life. She also loved to run and to hike. She jogged around Green Lake in Seattle countless times, completed several significant hikes around the world, and completed eight half marathons.  She was also interested in poetry, (especially the Iliad), fashion, and Soviet gulags, (yes, you read that right), and, of course, travel. She visited over 25 countries, including two years of Peace Corps service in Western Samoa, which she called the best thing she ever did, and a year in Ecuador. In Ecuador she was librarian and archivist at the Charles Darwin research station in the Galapagos Islands. She led the establishment of the station’s archive, and she founded the Library Advisory Board, which she chaired until her death. She called her work with the Charles Darwin research station her most satisfying professional accomplishment.

But the travel that most impacted Betsy was her childhood experience spending summers at the “cabino” on Lake Michigamme in the upper peninsula of Michigan. It instilled a love of outdoor adventure that lasted her whole life. She wrote, “It really shaped who I am.” And that it was “the greatest gift from Mom and Dad”.

Betsy was preceded in death by her parents, Audrey and Robert Stiles, and her grandmother, Marguerite McCullah. She is survived by her dear brother Bob, his children Justin, Jessica and Brittany, and their mother, Jane. She is also survived by her husband of 25 years, Daniel Knight, who loved her and was loved by her, more than all the world, to the power of a googolplex to a googol.

A memorial for Betsy will be held in the Wisteria Room at the Washington Park Arboretum at 1 PM, Saturday, March 4. All are welcome.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to:

The Nature Conservancy
Attn: Treasury (web/memorial giving)
4245 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 100
Arlington, VA 22203, USA
(800) 628-6860
http://www.nature.org/membership-giving/more-ways-to-give/memorial-giving.xml