Obituary: Chadwick, Elise Hunt
Her father served as Wyoming’s governor and was then elected senator of Wyoming.
Elise always remembered spending two weeks at a National Student Leadership Seminar on Campobello Island, the summer home of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor.
Later, Elise dined with President and Mrs. Roosevelt in the White House.
After attending Stephens College, Elise completed her college studies at the University of Wisconsin, where she met Russell Henry Wood Chadwick, a graduate student in geology.
The two married in 1945 after Russell returned from serving in WWII.
They lived in New York, New Jersey, and Minnesota before moving in 1954 to Spokane, where they reared four children: Douglas, Thomas, Gordon, and Mary Maud.
Elise was active in the Spokane Chapter of the Junior League.
Because both Gordon and Maud were born with physical and intellectual disabilities, Elise also became involved with the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC).
She was chair of the local Spokane chapter, then the regional representative to the National Association.
She worked with the state legislature and also with legislators in Congress to improve opportunities for citizens with special needs.
She did this tirelessly, and she did it successfully, serving for many years on the Governor’s Mental Health and Mental Retardation Advisory Council and on the state’s Comprehensive Health Planning Council.
Here in Spokane, Elise took a job with the County Health Department, writing grants and helping establish and administer programs for senior nutrition, senior housing, and genetic counseling.
If you look, you will see her legacy today in the improved quality of life now available for a great many people, young, elderly, or handicapped, all benefiting from more care and attention than was available before Elise and her many colleagues went to work seeking solutions.
Elise was strong, gracious, fair, tenacious, and, above all, kind and focused on doing good.
She is survived by her three sons, Douglas, Thomas, and Gordon and by five Chadwick grandchildren: Parker, Caley, Taylor, Teal, and Russell.
She will be greatly missed as well by the many, many friends with whom she continued to share her stories, her wisdom, and a glass of red wine until she departed this world on November 8 at the age of 93.
A Memorial Celebration of her life will be held January 30 at the Community Center of the Rockwood South Hill Retirement Communities.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Arc of Spokane, 320 E. 2nd Ave., Spokane, WA 99202-1402.
Or just pause a moment to talk to a dog, a horse, or a bird on a nearby branch and give it a heartfelt hello from Elise.