Dr. Elizabeth Hooper Gleason, affectionately known as “Dr. Betty,” died peacefully at home in her sleep on Saturday morning at age 89, just eight days after her husband, Dr. Charles Sherman Gleason, Jr., had passed away. Dr. Elizabeth Gleason, daughter of William Ellsworth and Grace Robinson Hooper, was born on the 4th of July, 1921. Her grandfather, William Lesley Hooper, was a professor at Tufts University and Acting President of that university from 1912 to 1914. Her father was an engineer involved in the construction of many industrial and infrastructure projects around the world. Thus, Betty spent her childhood in many different places, including England, France, Persia and Argentina. She had one younger brother, William Robinson Hooper, who died in 1984.

Betty graduated from Jackson College of Tufts University in the class of 1943 and went on to study medicine at Tufts University Medical School, gaining her MD in 1946. There were only four female students in her medical class, all of whom, apart from facing other restrictions, were not allowed to participate in male urology clinics. Betty remained very supportive of Tufts for her entire life, graciously donating to the university, particularly the Medical School. During her medical internship at Newton Wellesley Hospital she met her husband, Dr. Charles “Sherm” Gleason. The couple married in December 1947 at Tufts University’s Crane Chapel and enjoyed 63 years of married life together.

Betty is survived by five children and their spouses: William Hooper and Helen Charuhas Gleason of Nashville, Tennessee, Dr. Pamela Gleason and Dr. Charles Wesley Swearingen of Belmont, Massachusetts, Susan Gleason and Dr. Yuen Tat So of Palo Alto, California, Robert Christopher and Jane Duff Gleason of Wareham, and Dr. Amy Gleason Wiegandt and Manfred Helmut Wiegandt, also of Wareham. The couple’s first son, Charles Sherman Gleason III, died at the age of two in a tragic accident. Betty is also survived by nine grandchildren, Anna Kauderer (and her husband David), Andrew (and his wife Stephanie) and Cynthia So, Christopher Swearingen, Gordon and Henry Gleason, Carmen, Benjamin and Sarah Louise Wiegandt, and two great-grandchildren, Eleni Kauderer and Brandon So. Her great-grandson, Brandon, was born just four weeks ago.  To her delight, Betty was able to meet and hold him.

Following their internships, Betty and her husband moved to Wareham in 1950. She opened her practice as a general practitioner, and her husband his practice as a pediatrician in a joint office located in their downtown Wareham residence. Despite her busy office and a growing family, Dr. Betty found time to conduct a Well-Women Clinic. She was, among other things, instrumental in starting Wareham Hospice and Wareham Area Counseling, a psychiatric counseling service, now called Bayview Associates Counseling. She was the Wareham school physician for female athletes, while her husband was looking after the male athletes. Together with her husband she would also provide sex education for adolescents in her home at a time when the school would not. Dr. Betty loved her profession, because it allowed her to help people. She retired from her medical practice at age 75.

Apart from her profession, Betty served on the Board of Trustees of Friends Academy in North Dartmouth, the school her children and later a number of her grandchildren attended. She also loved flowers and plants and birds. She kept a diary recording when the ospreys, who had a nest in view of her dining room window, would arrive in the spring, have their babies and depart in the fall. Betty loved raising her family and spending much of her time with her children and grandchildren. She enjoyed playing games, especially Scrabble, a game she played until her last days. She loved to cook meals for family and friends, and to travel with her husband.  During her last years Betty faced various medical challenges, however, she still lived at home and would make an effort to visit her children as frequently as possible for dinner. She was always a lady, very graceful and grateful, always polite and well-mannered.

There will be a memorial service on Tuesday, March 15 at 4:00 PM at the First Congregational Church, 11 Gibbs Avenue (across from the town greens) in Wareham. In lieu of flowers, please send donations in Dr. Elizabeth Gleason’s memory to Southcoast Hospice, 200 Mill Road, Fairhaven, MA 02719. Arrangements are by Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home, Wareham. To leave a message of condolence, visit: www.ccgfuneralhome.com.