Eliza Cope Harrison

Eliza Cope Harrison died peacefully at home in Rumford, RI, on November 24, 2020.

Born November 8, 1936, she was the daughter of Alice and Oliver Cope of Cambridge, MA.

Educated at the Winsor School in Boston, where she later taught history, and Bryn Mawr College, she also received a master’s degree in history from the University of Michigan.

Eliza was a lifelong educator and learner, teaching history to high school students in Boston, New Haven, Ann Arbor, and at a French-language girls school in Beirut, Lebanon.

On moving to Pennsylvania in the mid 1970s, she spent 10 years as Director of the Hershey Museum of American Life.

Her decades-long involvement with educational institutions and with Bryn Mawr, in particular, was furthered through service on the Board of Managers of Haverford College, and as the President of the Bryn Mawr Alumnae Association.

Eliza also served as President of the Board of the Awbury Arboretum Association in Philadelphia, was active in the Pennsylvania Historical Society, and with the Middleton Place Foundation in Charleston, SC.

Renowned for her warmth, intelligence and inquisitiveness, Eliza’s love of history extended to scholarship; she researched and edited two books based on family and historical archives, Philadelphia Merchant: Diary of Thomas Pym Cope, 1800-1851 (1978) and Best Companions: The Letters of Eliza Middleton Fisher and Her Mother (2001).

In the years prior to her death, she completed a third manuscript based on the life of Henry Middleton.

Friends and family knew Eliza as a warm and caring person who always expressed interest in others.

She counted among her extended family two English “brothers”, John and Richard Himsworth, who spent four years during World War II living with Eliza’s family in Cambridge and in Rhode Island.

They and their children developed lifelong relationships, spending time together frequently on both sides of the Atlantic.

She was an accomplished cellist and enjoyed playing chamber music.

One of her shared passions with her husband Timothy was the music of Bach.

She was a member of the Harrisburg (PA) Society of Friends (Quakers) and seemed to effortlessly live the Quaker tenets of simplicity, integrity, and stewardship.

She is survived by her two daughters, Abigail and Emily Harrison, both of Rumford RI, their husbands, Mark Lurie and James Boyd, and her granddaughter Leah Harrison-Lurie.

Additionally she is survived by her sister-in-law Margaret Cope and by John Himsworth.

She was predeceased by her husband of 49 years, Timothy S Harrison, her brother Robert Cope, and Richard Himsworth.

Due to the current restrictions, a memorial service will be held in the summer.

In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to Bryn Mawr College, in memory of Eliza, to the Middle East Scholarship Fund.

Funeral arrangements are entrusted with WILLIAM W.

TRIPP Funeral Home, 1008 Newport Ave., Pawtucket.

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