Betsy Stott, a lifelong summer resident of Doolittle Lake, died peacefully on Jan. 3, 2022, at the Caleb Hitchcock Health Center, part of the Duncaster Retirement Community in Bloomfield, Conn. She was surrounded by her children, Peter, Janet and Sarah. She is also survived by her sons-in-law, Howard Jennings and Arthur Pembleton.

 Betsy’s father, Allen S. Hubbard, was one of the original 15 founders of the Doolittle Lake Company, and in 1928 he built a camp on the east shore of the lake. Originally it was a day camp where he would swim and fish and his wife, Harriet, would play cards. Betsy and her siblings, David, Allen and Charlotte, grew up loving the lake. Their father brought to the camp a Barnegat Bay Sneakbox sailboat, which the Hubbard family, and later the Stott family, sailed on Doolittle until the early 1970s. This boat has recently been restored, thanks to Jim Ackerly and Schuyler Thomson, and is now owned by the Doolittle Lake Club.

 Betsy’s husband, Gordon Stott, shared her love of the lake, and their family spent at least a month every summer at Doolittle. Their children took swimming lessons at the boathouse, enjoyed fishing, sailing and boating and were active members in club activities.

In the 1980s, Betsy started researching the history of settlement around the lake, and in 1994 she wrote “Doolittle Woods, Two Hundred Years of Change.” Later, she continued her research and made an inventory of the foundations of the 18th- and 19th-century farms and mills in the area and gave numerous talks and tours about Doolittle and Pondtown, the settlement closest to the lake. In 2012 the Doolittle Lake Company presented her with a plaque in honor of her significant contributions to the community.

Betsy was born in Pelham Manor, N.Y., on Nov. 13, 1919. She attended Ethel Walker School and Vassar College and received a master’s degree in education from Columbia University Teachers College and one in museum education from New York University.

 During World War II she worked in Special Branch in the Pentagon translating Japanese messages for military intelligence. In 1945 she married Gordon Stott, who also worked at the Pentagon. They settled in Mount Kisco, N.Y. Betsy taught history and English at the Cisqua School in Mount Kisco and at the Rippowam-Cisqua School in Bedford, N.Y.

 After retiring from teaching in 1976, she spent over a decade volunteering at the Katonah Art Gallery (now the Katonah Museum of Art) as a docent and exhibit designer, notably on Southeast Asian shadow puppets and on Finnish art.

In addition to her other activities, Betsy was always painting. She started painting when she was 14 and continued into her 102nd year. She sketched in charcoal and graphite, painted in oils and watercolors and even started drawing on her iPad in her later years. One of her mentors was the painter Guy Pène du Bois, who summered in Norfolk.

Betsy will be remembered for her inquisitive mind, her positive outlook and her determination to persevere in whatever held her interest.
 A memorial service will be held at the Colebrook Congregational Church later in the spring. Donations in her memory can be made to the Norfolk Historical Society.