Obit: Beatrice Lord ... avid mountain climber

LEBANON - Beatrice "Bea" Lord, 98, of Lebanon, passed away on Saturday, October 19, 2013, at the H.D. Goodall Hospital in Sanford.

She was born on November 16, 1914, in Lebanon, a daughter of Walter and Florence (McCobb) Lord. She grew up on the Red Wing Farm with her sisters Marjorie and Helen. She attended the Little Red School House on Center Road and graduated from Sanford High School and the University of New Hampshire. During World War II Bea was given a scholarship to attend New York University to study engineering. This was a field that needed workers, as so many men were serving in the Second World War. She also earned an accounting degree from Bentley College.

Bea worked for Arthur D. Little and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bea had a variety of jobs in Massachusetts and eventually went into programming computers at a time when very few women were working in this field. Upon returning to Lebanon Bea became very active in helping with the historical chapters that the Lebanon Historical Society has published. She did most of the typing and proofreading. She also belonged to the Friends of the Library, where she helped to improve the selection of books, helped with fund raising as well as filling in whenever needed. She had created a list of who is buried in some of the cemeteries in town.

She was a member of the First Congregational Church in Lebanon where she served in many capacities among them as treasurer. Bea's hobbies were reading, gardening, crossword puzzles, traveling and hiking. She traveled extensively throughout the United States and Europe as well as making trips to Australia, New Zealand, China and Japan. While in Norway she saw over one foot of snow in July. Bea hiked many of the Appalachian Mountain Club trails and received a certificate stating she was a member of the 4,000-footer club for climbing more than 46 mountains over 4,000 feet in New Hampshire's White Mountains. In Canada Bea climbed Mt. Lynx which is over 10,000 feet. She is survived by one sister, Helen Baker of Easton, Mass., nieces, Jane Bastey and her husband, Mark of Freeport, Penny Briant and her husband, Jerry of Naples, Fla., Priscilla Crane and her husband, Bob of Easton, Mass., nephews, Leon Blood and his wife, Susan of Lebanon, Stephen Baker of Easton, Mass., and Roger Baker of Easton, Mass. She is also survived by many great nieces and nephews.

ARRANGEMENTS

A funeral service for Bea will be held on Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Carll-Heald & Black Funeral Home, 580 Main Street, Springvale. An hour of visitation will begin at 1 p.m. until the time of the funeral service. Those planning an expression of sympathy are asked to consider donations in her memory to the Lebanon Historical Society c/o Nancy Wyman, 383 Shapleigh, Road, Lebanon, Maine 04076. Condolences may be expressed at www.blackfuneralhomes.com.