Elizabeth A. Grenon

Elizabeth A. (Hawkes) Grenon Grenon, Elizabeth A. Nov 13, 1936 – Nov 11, 2016 Bellevue, NE. Survived by children, Norman (Kim), Donald, and Alan Grenon; grandchildren, Alice, Libby, and Alfred; former husband, Maurice; and brother, George Hawkes (Anne). Celebration of Life service 1:00 p.m. Sunday, December 18, 2016, with visitation following until 4:00 p.m. at Fontenelle Forest Nature Center. Memorials to NE Ornithologists’ Union, or Fontenelle Forest Association. Elizabeth A. Grenon, better known as Betty, was born in Coventry, Connecticut, in 1936, moved to Florida, and travelled as part of an Air Force family to Mississippi, Texas, Taiwan, Japan, Missouri, and Nebraska, where she lived from 1974. She went back to college in Missouri for accounting, and continued advanced study in Nebraska, becoming a CPA and the first female CMA in NE. She had a career as a financial analyst with Northern Natural Gas, later Enron, until her first retirement. She was a member and officer in the National Association of Accountants, Mensa, the Inland Bird Banding Association, a couple book clubs, and many environmental organizations, and in later years became a NE Master Naturalist. Betty was a painter, crafter, and voracious reader. Betty started feeding birds when in Missouri, took an ornithology class for fun, and subsequently got a lot of people interested in birds and nature. In Nebraska, her family discovered Fontenelle Forest, and she became increasingly involved as a volunteer, board member, and staff. (It took her about three tries to actually retire.) She took on leading the Omaha Christmas Bird Count (and other counts) for decades, continuing the traditional chili potluck compilation at the day’s end. Betty got training and permits, using bird banding in education programs and initiated a long term station in the nationwide Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survival project. She was active in the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union (N. O. U.), serving for recent decades as N. O.U.’s meticulous treasurer and sometime meeting organizer. She enjoyed the Fontenelle Forest Bird Club, including trips around the country. She travelled with friends and family, birding around the U. S. and Canada, and in Peru, India, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, Germany, France, the U. K., Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, and Panama. She loved her view of the woods at home near Fontenelle Forest, witnessing the historic return of Wild Turkeys, nesting Cooper’s Hawks, and Pileated Woodpeckers from her living room, as well as all the birds she coddled at the feeders. In her last days of activity at home before telling us it was time to move to hospice, Mom spent her time getting N. O. U.’s finances in tidy shape to hand off to the next treasurer. She was devoted to others, and better organized and adjusted to this last move than the rest of us. Go look at some birds. That one you’re looking at was her favorite.