Elizabeth Bowker Jackson loved the mountains. She climbed the New England Whites and Greens with her father and the Rockies with her daughter. She reveled in the challenge and the freedom of the outdoors. It prepared her to deal with a degenerative neurological disease that led to her death on December 14, 2020. Formerly of Westford, Massachusetts, Elizabeth had moved to Fort Collins, Colorado a year ago to be near her daughter and the mountains she loved.
Born in Concord, Massachusetts to Helen (Roh-Petersen) and Gordon Bowker on April 16, 1956, she grew up in nearby Littleton, Massachusetts, graduating from Littleton High School in 1974. She went on to graduate from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition, and later earned a Master's degree from Framingham State University. She managed the federal supplemental food program Women, Infants and Children (WIC) of Central Massachusetts for several years. She also served as head nutritionist at Emerson Hospital in Concord. Later, she changed careers and became an adjunct of Sextant Communications, Inc. developing web pages. She still receives mail addressed to "Web Goddess." She worked as a writer and web editor at AECOM before her retirement in 2019.
Elizabeth's love of the outdoors was the legacy of a long line of family hikers and guides in the White Mountains beginning with her paternal grandmother. She traced her roots to the landing of the Mayflower. She loved nothing more than strolling the woods of her family's beloved camp in the Massachusetts hills with her extended family and dogs.
She leaves her two children: Katherine Anne Jackson (and her husband Brad Milley) of Fort Collins and her son, Eric Richard Jackson of Acton, Massachusetts, as well as Philip Gauthier of Derry, New Hampshire, her former husband Richard Jackson of Ayer, Massachusetts, her brothers Roger (and his wife Mary) of Cape Cod and her brother Douglas (and his dearest friend Jeanne Bartel) of Weston, Massachusetts as well as several nieces and nephews and many cousins and relatives throughout the United States and Norway. She was predeceased by her parents Helen and Gordon Bowker.
Family and friends will gather to honor and remember Elizabeth for a memorial service on Friday, July 9, 2021 at 10:00 AM in the Badger Funeral Home, 347 King Street, Littleton, MA.
In Elizabeth's honor, the Bowker Jackson family requests simple acts of charity and kindness to friends and strangers alike. We believe that is the best way to honor the life of someone so devoted to treating people the way she wanted to be treated.
We thank Elizabeth's many friends at Rigden Farm Senior Living in Fort Collins for their love and support.
Arrangements under the care of Badger Funeral Home, 347 King St., Littleton MA, 01460 978-486-3709 www.badgerfuneral.com