Elinor Ruth Chastain Williams

Elinor Ruth Chastain Williams died of metastatic lung cancer, April 15, 2024, in her Denver home, surrounded by family.  She was 79.  Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 11, 1945, to Sarah & William Chastain, she is survived by husband Robert Howell Williams, children Wesley Williams and Ruth Williams Franklin, grandchildren Tyler & Sarah Wolf Williams and Violet & Valencia Franklin, brother Peter Chastain, and half-sisters Susan Chastain Sawyer and Amelia Chastain Brogdon.  Her brother Bill Chastain preceded her in death.

Elinor grew up in Los Angeles and moved to Modesto, California, at age 10.  She graduated from Thomas Downey High School in 1962 as a member of the class that inspired the film American Graffiti by classmate George Lucas.  She spent her junior year in Denmark as Downey’s first American Field Service student, forging a life-long dedication to studying foreign languages.  She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and earned a master's degree in German literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  She began her teaching career while living in Boulder.

Elinor spent most of her professional life in Princeton, New Jersey.  She taught at the Montgomery Middle and High Schools.  She imparted a love of language-learning to hundreds of students there, many of whom studied German with her for 6 years.  She developed a curriculum to improve understanding of the horrific social forces that led to the Holocaust by having her German students read Mein Kampf, a book banned in Germany and not available in the Princeton public library but copies of which Elinor found in the Princeton University library.  She started the Montgomery German exchange program, in which her sophomores would be paired with students from Germany, spending a month living with one another’s families in Montgomery and Göttingen, where Elinor studied for a year during college.  Many students credited this experience with shaping their careers and lives.  The exchange program continues to this day.  Elinor taught ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) to people of all ages, including adults in night-school, served a 3-year term as president of the Montgomery teachers’ union, and was the founding faculty sponsor of the Montgomery High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance.  That club was a life-line for students questioning their sexual orientation and gender identity at a time when there was little public support to do so.  After retiring, Elinor continued to work on ESOL curriculum development and as a tutor, on a volunteer basis.  

And Elinor was a homemaker.  She was a loving wife to husband Bob, whom she married in 1966; she supported his scientific career.  In raising her two kids, Elinor fostered their creativity, love of learning and can-do attitudes by helping them host unique birthday parties, find books to get lost in during many trips to the public library, collaborating in craft and sewing projects, and supporting their musical and cultural exchange endeavors.  She loved to garden and every year made exquisite grape jam while living in Denver.  The family enjoyed biking, hiking, and camping.  With Bob’s sister Kay and her husband Fran, Elinor and Bob had many annual camping/hiking trips in the West, including at most National Parks there.

Elinor was gregarious, kind, loving, generous, compassionate, and committed to social justice, but also she was unpretentious and shared her feelings frankly with a no-nonsense approach to life.  She will be forever loved…because she was Elinor.