Seebeck, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Bryan Seebeck was born in West Point, Mississippi, on August 9, 1965. She grew up in West Point until her family moved to Kenilworth, Illinois, in 1974. Elizabeth was working at Hanson Park Elementary School in Chicago when she and John Seebeck fell in love. They married in 1991, raising four loving sons: Lyle, Ray, Johnny and Henry. Elizabeth passed away October 11 after a thirty-three month battle with ovarian cancer.There will be no public service for Elizabeth, but donations in her memory can be made to: Elizabeth Seebeck Scholarship Fund,c/o Near North Montessori School, 1434 West Division Street, Chicago, IL 60642; https://www.nnms.org/giving/elizabethseebeckfun d. Elizabeth was one of four children. Her mother and father, Neville and John Bryan, met at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, and were married in 1958. Elizabeth was the third born after brother John III and sister Margaret; the youngest, Charles, arrived five years after Elizabeth. Among the four Bryan siblings are 13 children and one grandchild. Elizabeth’s father, John Bryan, passed away last October. The family’s West Point, Mississippi, roots were deep and remain firm today. Elizabeth’s paternal grandmother, Mur (Catherine Wilkerson Bryan), enjoyed 19 grandchildren from her four children. This family continues to grow, as do the loving bonds of the many cousins, aunts, uncles, and children. It was Mur who influenced Elizabeth’s life work of helping others. Elizabeth was a college Education major (Vanderbilt, 1987), who began special education work in high school. Elizabeth’s service for others later found two specialized and accomplished tracks. The first was deaf education, including a Master’s Degree from Gallaudet University in 1992. The second was public Montessori in Chicago Public Schools. Every person Elizabeth came into contact with felt her warmth, light, beauty and interest in them. They drew lessons from her patience, kindness, generosity, intelligence and sense of humor. Elizabeth knew how to have fun and led all family, school and other activities and occasions with both creative design and high human participation that left everyone wanting more. Her husband of twenty-eight years followed her lead in raising their four sons. John and the boys were always first for Elizabeth. They were the beneficiaries of her constant love and passion for learning, teaching, travel, yoga, nature and art. No birthday, Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, or major holiday was neglected by Elizabeth in showering her love on these five lucky men. The Montessori method, that is, child-centered learning and full personal development, mattered to Elizabeth. The first classroom for all Seebeck boys was Montessori and remained so until junior high or high school. Elizabeth reinforced Montessori in the home, on the ice, in the field, in the alley or at the farm. She arranged travel for the boys to watch whales migrate, eagles feed, and geysers burst. Elizabeth brought this passion into Stagg Elementary School and, later, Oglesby Elementary School in the Auburn Gresham neighborhoods of Chicago. Rallying friends, recruiting teachers and tapping into the fervent love and drive of the parent community, Elizabeth was the face and heart of the Oglesby Montessori Foundation, which provided strategy, administrative and curriculum design for early childhood Montessori classrooms in these schools. This work continues today and the love for her in this community abounds. Elizabeth is survived by her mother, husband, four children, three siblings, and twelve nieces and nephews. The love of her West Point family, Neville’s Jonesboro, Arkansas, family and John’s immediate family is equal to that of the countless friends, peers, children and people she met along her happy and beautiful life.