Obituary: Elizabeth C. Shepherd / Art history instructor who became librarian
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Elizabeth C. "Lib" Shepherd, who taught art history at the University of Pittsburgh and later headed the Frick Fine Arts Library, died at her Sewickley home on April 6. She was 95.
"Italian Renaissance art was her specialty," said son Alexander Booth. But she was a lifelong supporter of a broad range of the arts who also enjoyed needlework, theater and reading and was an amateur musician. She loved birds, travel and gardening, he said. Mrs. Shepherd was a practitioner of Ikebana and some of her flower arrangements were exhibited during Spring Flower Shows at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.
Born in Evanston, Ill., to Richard and Gertrude Congdon Crampton, she moved with her brother, Kenneth, in 1929 to Osborne, where they were raised by Alexander and Elizabeth Congdon Barron, their uncle and aunt.
Mrs. Shepherd attended Sewickley Academy and the Hartridge School and in 1936 graduated cum laude in fine arts from Radcliffe College, where she was president of her house, participated in drama and was a member of the Radcliffe Choral Society.
She earned a master's degree in fine arts at the University of Pittsburgh, where she became an instructor in art history. In 1941, she married Donald A. Booth with whom she had seven children.
David Wilkins, Pitt professor emeritus, said Mrs. Shepherd was "very elegant and well liked by the faculty and students, very gracious and helpful to people, and very family oriented."
When Mr. Booth died in 1966, four children were still living at home. "She struggled initially with what to do," her son said, "but took charge" and returned to Pitt to earn a master's in library science. She retired in 1980 as head of the Frick Fine Arts Library.
"She rode two buses going to work at Pitt," he said, "but she got us all through college with at least one degree."
"She was an amazing woman," said Craig Dobbins, director of music ministries for the Presbyterian Church of Sewickley, where Mrs. Shepherd was an elder. "When her husband died, she had children to care for and returned to work. She understood very well that women could be vital resources within the workforce, and she wasn't afraid to articulate that. But always very kindly."
First Published April 9, 2010 12:00 am
