Nellie E. Corson

Nellie Elizabeth Griswold Corson died on January 23, 2017 at her residence in Ithaca, New York
at the age of 102. She was predeceased in 2012 by her beloved husband of 74 years, Dale R.
Corson.
Nellie was born in December 1914 in Caldwell, Kansas, a small town near the Oklahoma
border, to Walter and Hettie Griswold, who instilled in her the importance of family and a sense
of responsibility to those around her. In high school she played the violin, debated, edited the
school paper, and graduated as her class valedictorian, all while helping her father with his real
estate and insurance business.
Nellie attended the College of Emporia in Emporia, Kansas, where she majored in English and
psychology, graduating magna cum laude in 1935. During her freshman year she met her future
husband, Dale Corson, also a small town Kansas native.
Following graduation, Nellie returned to Caldwell to help her mother care for her ill father and
grandmother. During that 3-year period, while Dale pursued his PhD in Physics at the University
of California, Berkeley, Nellie taught school in one of the last one-room schools in rural Kansas.
Nellie and Dale were finally able to marry in Caldwell in June 1938, and immediately embarked
on what she anticipated as the adventure of lifetime - a trip on 2-lane roads from Kansas to
California in a Model A Ford. That drive was the beginning of a life and partnership more full and
rich than she could ever have imagined.
Following completion of his post-doctoral work at Berkeley, Nellie and Dale moved back to the
midwest for Dale to assume his first teaching position at the University of Missouri. They had
barely settled in before world events intervened, with Dale recruited to MIT for radar
development research, involving moves to Cambridge, MA, then to Washington, DC, where
their first child, David, was born in 1943. From Washington Nellie and Dale moved west again,
to Los Alamos and Albuquerque, NM. In 1946, with the war at an end, they finally settled in
Ithaca, New York, where Dale joined the physics faculty at Cornell University.
Nellie and Dale remained in Ithaca for the rest of their lives, with Bruce, Richard and Janet
joining the family over the next six years. As was typical of the day, Nellie took primary
responsibility for raising the four children, while sharing in the communal parenting of a close-
knit group of neighborhood children. Nellie also engaged in community activities including the
League of Women Voters and PEO, holding leadership positions with the PTA, Cub Scouts,
Friends of the Library, Sage Hospital Auxiliary and Campus Club, serving on the Boards of Ithacare, the Cornell (later Tompkins County) Public Library, and the Unitarian Church.
As Dale advanced through the academic and administrative ranks at Cornell, Nellie's university-
related responsibilities grew along with his, requiring her to reorder her own priorities. Although
she had never aspired to life as the wife of a university administrator, she committed herself to
being his active partner in the extensive social responsibilities and travel associated with his
work as Dean, Provost and President of Cornell. Drawing on her small-town Kansas heritage,
she found passion and purpose as a friend to new faculty, spouses, retirees, staff, students and
alumni with a forthright, unassuming manner. She served Cornell by being Dale's steadfast
confidant and essential supporter during the most turbulent years in the university's history.
In their later years, Nellie and Dale enjoyed a more relaxed pace traveling, rediscovering old
friends and engaging in the lives of their grandchildren. They became founding residents of
Kendal at Ithaca, which Dale had worked to establish as the first life-care retirement community
in New York State. She adjusted to Dale's death in 2012 and her own progressively limited
capacities with grit and grace. The Kendal staff became for Nellie an extended family, offering
sensitive and warm care enlivened by her sweet nature, sense of humor, feisty repartee, and
running commentary on modern dress, hair styles, and tattoos.
Nellie is survived by her four children: David (Carolyn Corson) of Ithaca; Bruce (Mary Wyman)
of Sebastopol, California; Richard (Shirl Dorfman) of Phoenix, Arizona; and Janet (Jon Corson-
Rikert) of Ithaca. She is also survived by six grandchildren: Catherine Corson (Amherst, MA),
Amy Schwartz (Ithaca, NY), Melissa Wyman (Palo Alto, CA), Abigail Spencer (Lyons, CO), Tyler
Corson-Rikert (Washington, DC), Hayley Corson-Rikert (Portland, OR); and eight great-
grandchildren: Geoffrey and Alex Fitz-Gibbon, Madeline Schwartz, Aramaia and Anika Burns;
Wilma, Margot and Harriet Spencer.
The Corson family and Kendal community celebrated Nellie's life with her on the occasion of her
102
nd
birthday on December 27th, and no public service is planned. In lieu of flowers,
contributions to the Tompkins County Public Library will be appreciated.