Ann Elizabeth Ratcliffe

Ann Elizabeth Ratcliffe, 78, died suddenly at Winter Growth Assisted Living in Columbia, MD, on September 20, 2022.

Ann was born on Christmas night in 1943 in Beckley, WV, the daughter of Edwin and Lanier File Ratcliffe. After graduating from Beckley public schools, she attended Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, VA, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She was president of her sophomore class and active in theater, both on stage and with backstage work, but was often found playing her guitar and singing with friends at the school coffee house.

Following graduation, Ann spent one year as a lab technician at Harvard Medical School before embarking on her career as a chemistry educator. She went on to earn a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Duke University while teaching for two years in Danville, VA.

From 1968 to 1972, Ann taught at the American Community School in Beirut, Lebanon. She considered these to be the most important formative years of her life, giving her the opportunity to travel extensively in Europe and northern Africa as documented by her outstanding photography skills. In addition to her science teaching, she directed theatrical productions at the school.

After returning to the United States, Ann taught in high schools and then moved to Stillwater, OK. At Oklahoma State University she was a research

associate, a lecturer, and coordinator of the general chemistry laboratories. Her duties included disposing of the chemical waste, often noxious, from student labs. This led her to write Chemistry: The Experience, a green chemistry lab manual for a first-year class, where one of the goals was to end each investigation/experiment with products that could be put down the drain safely or could be recycled as reactants in another experiment.

She was also the author of three editions of the study guide for The Extraordinary Chemistry of Ordinary Things by Carl Snyder. While at Oklahoma State, Ann began taking classes in pottery in order to learn more about the chemical reactions of the glazes during the firing process, but also developed an enduring passion for working with clay at a wheel.

In 1995 Ann moved to Greeley, CO, to manage a high school chemistry curriculum project at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC). During the next 15 years she also taught courses in chemistry, physical science, lab and classroom safety, and chemistry teaching methods. Seven of these courses she developed herself. In 2008, she received the Colorado Association of Science Teachers’ College Science Award for her outstanding contributions to the teaching of lab safety and green chemistry. She was also nominated that year for the outstanding college science teacher of the year in Colorado. She made dozens of presentations at professional workshops statewide on these issues and published numerous articles in professional journals.

Even on the last day of her life when she quietly harmonized to a song at a Winter Growth singalong, Ann showed her musical talent. She rejected piano lessons, but found her niche as an excellent alto in choruses and as a folk singer, folk guitarist, and autoharpist in the style of Mother Maybelle Carter. Ann and two friends at UNC formed the group, Back Home, performing Celtic and other traditional music at local fairs, parties, and conventions.

If you knew Ann, you had a kind and loyal friend who fought for social justice, gave generously of her time and assets to anyone in need, thought of others before herself, gardened avidly (including herbs for her own stand at the Greeley Farmers’ Market), and loved cats - many, many cats.

Ann shared her life for 35 years with her partner, Anna Koester, who died in 2011. She was close to Anna’s sons - Kirk, Kerry, and Paul - and especially to Anna’s daughter, Kenna, who referred to Ann as her “significant mother”. In addition to Anna’s children, Ann is survived by her sister, Mary Ratcliffe, of Columbia, MD, and her brother, Edwin Navarro, of San Rafael, CA.

The family suggests that those wishing to honor Ann’s life through donation do so to organizations concerned with science literacy, the environment, human rights, or animal rights.