“Elizabeth Margaret Bell. What a name. It has a ring to it,” her son wrote in a tribute. “It starts regally, expands musically, and ends with a simple toll. That toll sustains.

“Her parents and brothers called her ‘Betts.’ The old crowd called her ‘Betty.’ Her preference, however, was to be called ‘Elizabeth.’

“Elizabeth was a writer. From the time she learned to write until her body failed her, Elizabeth used her skill for arranging thoughts on the page to make sense of both the world and her life in it. She was also an expert raconteur. She told those close to her the stories of her experience with wit, feeling, and insight.

“Elizabeth was a great thinker. She earned a bachelor’s degree from The College of Saint Rose in 1964, but she never stopped learning. She was a voracious reader who amassed an enormous library of knowledge covering such diverse topics as history, feminism, human rights, science, the arts, politics, and social commentary — with concentrations in Native Studies, Colonial History, Modern American Fiction, Cinema, Women’s Studies, and Geology. She had a mind like a steel trap.

“Elizabeth was a teacher, although she only taught professionally for one academic year in 1968. She was a wise and kind tutor to anyone who could or would listen to the lessons she had to offer. She was a fount of knowledge — never at a loss on any subject. She was always curious. She was patient.

“Elizabeth was a deeply empathetic human with a fiercely brave soul. She was kind, fair, generous, charitable, and righteous. She believed in equity, human dignity, and universal human rights. She always made common cause with the oppressed and downtrodden.

“She couldn’t abide authoritarianism — whether on the world stage or in the domestic life of a family. This made her an amazing parent, grandparent, older sister, and friend. This also made the world a better place while she was here on it.

“Elizabeth had a wonderful and wicked sense of humor. Her laugh was loud and jolly and true. She was tremendously fun and playful. She loved good company, good food, good wine, and great art. She hated fruit. She had a sweet tooth.

“Fun Fact: Elizabeth is the reason the movie ‘The Place Beyond The Pines,’ filmed in the Capital District, opens with a scene shot at the Altamont Fair. Elizabeth, who grew up in Altamont and always loved the fair, took her two boys to the fair every summer. When one of the boys grew up, he wrote ‘The Place Beyond The Pines.’ 

“When the producers were scouting locations in the Capital District for a summer shoot, Elizabeth (who had read every draft of the script as her son wrote them, and had copy-edited them all) suggested to her son that the fair would be a perfect location for the movie’s opening scene. The son, in turn, suggested to the producers that the location for the opening scene should be the Altamont Fair. And so it was!”

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Elizabeth Margaret Bell was born on May 26, 1942. She died on June 26th, 2023. She was preceded in death by her beloved brother, Douglas W. Bell; her mother, Helen Vassak Bell; and her father, Douglas F. Bell.

At the time of her death, she was survived by her beloved brother, Samuel S. Bell; her former husband and life-long partner in parenting, Christopher Louis Coccio; her two beloved sons, Christopher Douglas Coccio and Benjamin Bell Coccio, and their wives, Heather Breedlove Coccio and Katherine Malone; and her beloved grandchildren, Charlotte Elizabeth Coccio and Christopher Michael Coccio.

“In lieu of flowers,” her family wrote, “please act to protect the environment, house the homeless, speak truth to power, treat others thoughtfully, and feed your curiosity.”