Elizabeth M. Miel

Artist, Writer, Visionary, Teacher, Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Acolyte, Lover of Knowledge, Seeker of Truth, and Generous Giver of Comfort and Joy – at 83 years old Elizabeth MacKiernan Miel, of Cambridge, Massachusetts was all of this and more. Tragically, she suffered a stroke from which she could not recover. She passed away peacefully in a Hospice House surrounded by the love and light of her family and friends on March 6th, 2025. Elizabeth began her journey in Boston, where she attended the Girls’ Latin School and then Boston University. She found her soulmate, Jan, and got married, started a family, and moved to Connecticut where she studied linguistics at Yale University (receiving her M.Phil). By the time she was 40 she had studied over 40 human languages, and then added a handful of computer languages to become an expert programmer working with giant computers in the biggest insurance companies in Hartford. After that she went back to school, this time earning a degree in Christian and Muslim Theology at Hartford Seminary. She went on to publish two books, work as a writer and researcher at Wesleyan University, and volunteer as a Chaplain at the Middlesex Memorial Hospital for many years. She was always a person of deep faith and was a long-time, active member of the Grace Church in Hartford. After Jan passed away, she moved back to Cambridge where she could be closer to her family and she started regularly attending The Society of Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, and Christ Church in Cambridge. Elizabeth MacKiernan Miel was the beloved wife (for 55 years) of the late Jan Miel; devoted mother of Justin Miel (Karen Miel) and the late Persephone Miel (Tony Rudié); loving sister of Sara MacKiernan, Katherine Hilliard, the late Bertram MacKiernan Jr., and the late John MacKiernan; cherished grandmother of Samantha Miel, Alexis Miel, Emma Ruzo (Michael Ruzo), Ingrid Rudié, and Lizzie Rudié; dear great-grandmother of Geneva Ruzo; she is also survived by many loving nieces, nephews, family and friends.

The Requiem Eucharist of the Resurrection for Elizabeth MacKiernan Miel will be held at The Society of Saint John the Evangelist, 980 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA on Saturday, May 10 th at 2:00pm followed by a reception in the chapel undercroft or (weather permitting) in the Guesthouse garden.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be sent to the Persephone Miel Fellowship Fund Pulitzer Center

Attn: Mouhamad Alem/Nathalie Applewhite

2000 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite #7000

Washington, DC, 20006

Checks should be made out to: Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Please be sure to write "Miel Fellowship" in the memo line of the check.

Or, if you would prefer to donate on-line you can go to:

https://pulitzercenter.org/?form=donate

And select to designate to Persephone Miel.

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