Elizabeth Otwell was born in Augusta on July 8, 1906. After graduating from Tubman High School for girls, she continued her education at Salem College in Winston-Salem, NC.  She taught for a short time in North Carolina before returning to Augusta. She also received other degrees in chemistry during her teaching career. She received a Masters in Advanced Chemistry from Reed College in Portland, Oregon and an Advanced Placement Chemistry degree from Hope College, Holland, Michigan. In 1961, she earned a Masters in Education at the University of North Carolina.

 

When she returned to Augusta, she began her career at her old school, Tubman High for Girls. While teaching at Tubman, she married John Calloway Otwell. This was at the time when married women were not allowed to teach. Her teaching was put on hold while she raised a son, John, and a daughter, Ann. Concerning married teachers, this draconian rule was abolished and she returned to teaching. She left Tubman and spent her last 20 years at Richmond Academy.

 

Due to the county mandatory retirement at age 65, she retired from Richmond that May. It didn't take long, with her great reputation, before she was offered a position to teach chemistry at a private school -- Westminster Schools of Augusta. She was the first chemistry teacher there. She spent four years at Westminster and when the school dissolved its high school, Augusta Preparatory Day School extended an invitation as their chemistry teacher.

 

Mrs. Otwell received accolades wherever she went. While at Richmond Academy, the 1965 annual was dedicated to her, and in 1975, she was named Star Teacher. Before she left Richmond, she was presented a silver tray from the Academy students. This was her thanks to them: "6.02 times 10 for the 23rd time," a figure well known to chemistry students as Avogadro's number.

 

While at Augusta Prep, Mrs. Otwell taught in the Governor's Honors Program. Mrs. Otwell’s sense of humor often surfaced.  When someone commented about her youth (she was Seventy-Five), she didn’t miss a beat before putting age in its relative place. She said, "Yes, I'm young - according to the formation of the earth."

 

She loved every minute of her extended career. She said, "I'm still enthusiastic about teaching." Her enthusiasm began when she and her twin sister spent many hours playing at school. They would switch roles as pupil and teacher. This pretending turned into reality when the twins grew up and both chose education as a career. The parallel careers of Mrs. Otwell and her sister took an interesting turn in 1965 when Richmond Academy dedicated the annual yearbook to Mrs. Otwell and the same year, the North Carolina School where her sister taught dedicated their annual yearbook to her.

 

Mrs. Otwell was a dedicated member of First Baptist Church where she served as a Sunday School teacher and supervised the Vacation Bible School. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society and the Richmond County Retired Teachers Association. She was a former president of the Y.W.C.A. and a former president of the Augusta Woman's Club.

 

Mrs. Otwell's husband died in 1959. Her only daughter, Connie, was killed in an automobile accident in 1969. Her son, John, now resides in Florida. Mrs. Otwell passed away on January 8, 1994. To quote one of her students:

 

"At a recent reunion of the class of '74, we shared memories of favorite teachers. Mrs. Otwell was one of mine. Her intellectual brilliance peppered with a great sense of humor was the perfect recipe for instilling a lifelong love of learning in her students. I'll always remember an uncanny recipe – substitute dish soap for egg whites to bake a cake."