Lisbeth Crowell Lieberman

Lisbeth Crowell Lieberman died on September 27, 2015, in Douglasville, Georgia, where she had lived since 2012.

She was born in Breckenridge, Texas, and moved at age three to her maternal grandparents’ home in Iron Mountain, Michigan, where she was raised and adopted by her aunt, Jeannette Crowell. She received a BS in Mechanical Engineering degree from Swarthmore Collect in 1945, was a student member of Sigma Xi and Mortar Board. She worked in Philadelphia at the Philco Corporation and the Franklin Institute Laboratories, and spent an academic year at the E.T. H. in Zurich, Switzerland. From 1967-83 she worked part-time at the Technical Information Center now OSTI abstracting engineering articles.

She and her husband, Bernard, who predeceased her in 2012, were married in 1950 and moved to Oak Ridge in September 1951. Here they raised their three children. She is survived by her daughter Laura C. Lieberman who with her husband W. R. Gignilliat live in Douglasville, Georgia, and their children W. Robert Gignilliat and his wife Shaylin Duncan Gignilliat in Greenville, South Carolina, and Elizabeth A. Gignilliat Ullom and her husband Josh Ullom in Seattle, Washington, and by her daughter Ruth L. Crofton of Sherman Oaks, California. Their third daughter, Jean, died in 1977 at age 19.

Liz and Bernie enjoyed travels to six continents, all of North America, and the 50 US states, but always looked forward to returning to Oak Ridge and the remodeled cemesto house they had lived in since 1953.

She was a lifetime member of the Oak Ridge branch of the American Association of University Women, the Oak Ridge Community Arts Center, and, as the 1975 champion, the Knox Area Women’s Golf Association. The Liebermans were Oak Ridge Civic Music Association members for more than 50 years, and Liz enjoyed playing the recorder and performing with Shepard’s Pipes for many years in East Tennessee. She held offices in the Arts Guild of Oak Ridge, AAUW, and the OR Women’s Golf Association. In the 1960s she was a girl scout leader.

Golf was her life-long recreation and resulted in three unique distinctions: 1 in 2001 she was the first golfer inducted into the OR Sports Hall of Fame; 2 she was the ORWGA champion twelve times; and 3 at age 67 she had won a club or a regional women’s golf championship in each of seven consecutive decades – from 1939 through 1992.

The community activity which was most satisfying to her was being one of the hundreds of volunteers who, in 1989, made Bob Spore’s vision of a community playground on the Cedar Hill school site become a reality in 72 hours of work. This playground was the favorite walking site for Bernie, Liz and their dog Buster. In 2009, the three of them moved into the Greenfield Retirement home in Oak Ridge.

Arrangements for reception for friends and a private interment at Oak Ridge Memorial Gardens are being planned for later this year. Donations in her memory may be made to the AAUW c/o M. Uziel, 102 Newton Lane, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, ORCMA 205 Badger Ave, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, or the charity of your choice.