Betsy Louise Hudson

Betsy Louise Hudson was born October 7, 1959, in Akron, Ohio, to Sara Louise (Davis) May and Russell James May. After a childhood spent in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, she and her family moved to Keene, New Hampshire, to which she retained an abiding attachment, for her high school years. She graduated from Keene High School in 1977 as valedictorian of her class and in 1981 graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College with a BA in Comparative Literature. On August 22, 1981, she married Thomas Grenville Hudson II, whom she had met at Dartmouth, and is mother to two daughters, Sally Topping (Hudson) Dill and Anne Woodbridge Hudson.

A highly skilled writer and editor and an astute analyst, she brought her talents to bear across multiple professions during a career that spanned four decades. Upon graduating from Dartmouth, she worked for Yankee Books in Dublin, New Hampshire, as a book editor and a contributor to Yankee Magazine. When she and her husband were both offered jobs with the National Security Agency (NSA), she moved to College Park, Maryland, before settling in Columbia, where she raised her family. During two separate stints with NSA, Betsy served in multiple capacities, focusing her efforts on organizational development, management training, refining writing and briefing skills, and promoting collaborative cross-organizational and cross-agency networks. These initiatives were all intended to enhance mission performance, but more importantly to her, they were devoted to improving the social health of the workplace, reflecting her invariable focus on the well-being of others.

Betsy and her family spent eight years in Germany on two separate professional tours of duty, periods of personal and cultural enrichment that she would later refer to as among the happiest years of her life. Betsy was a tremendously talented linguist. She mastered French and gained facility in Italian through her college studies, and while abroad, achieved a remarkable level of fluency in German with little advance training, reading the German classics in German, navigating all the details of life overseas, and facilitating Sally and Annie's enrollment and participation in the German school system. Most importantly, she forged enduring and deeply meaningful relationships with German friends that persist to the present day. She took great pleasure as well in exploring with her family the sights and the rich historical and cultural heritage of Germany and surrounding European countries. While in Germany she also acquired a Masters in Education from Boston University.

Music was always vitally important to Betsy, having come from a musically talented family. She played piano, oboe and recorder. As an accomplished oboist, she performed in the Dartmouth Symphony and Keene State Symphony Orchestras, and she sang in multiple choruses over the course of her life. She shared her great love of music with her husband, her daughters, and her grandchildren, enriching their lives immeasurably.

Betsy loved cross-country skiing and spent many a happy hour on trails in the Bavarian and Austrian Alps, northern New Hampshire, and the Portland area in Maine. She was also an avid tennis player. She humored her husband in following the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox, but she had a real passion for ice hockey, becoming a devoted fan of the Washington Capitals and their prolific goal-scorer Alex Ovechkin.

During Betsy's three decades in Columbia, she was a vital and valued member of the community, She formed many meaningful friendships, was actively involved in her daughters' education, taught English As A Second Language at Howard Community College, and was a dedicated member of St. John United Church, serving as a member of SJU's Church Council, its Communications Team, and the Bryant Woods Elementary School Partnership. The state of Maine also held a special place in Betsy's heart as the home of many dear family members, the location of the family cottage in Freeport, and the site of her second home base, her "happy place" in Portland's West End.

Betsy was a woman of strong character and great compassion. She radiated warmth and kindness and benevolence. She was deeply devoted to her family and created a loving and supportive environment for her children and grandchildren. The saying "some people create so much light that all around them grow" applies in abundance to Betsy. The torrent of tributes streaming in during her illness attest to the difference she made in many, many lives.

Betsy, who passed away on 10 February, will be dearly and desperately missed. She is survived by her husband Tom, her daughters Sally and Annie, her grandchildren Nicholas and Marie, her sons-in-law Joshua Dill and Carl Crafts, her sisters Barbara Lauer and Kitty May, her brother, Mark May, her mother-in-law Elinor Small Hudson, and ten nieces and nephews.

Memorial services are planned for Portland, Maine, and Columbia, Maryland. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Betsy's name to the Iris Music Project or the Monadnock Conservancy.