Dr. Elizabeth "Cyd" Hamilton (1967-2022). We are heartbroken to announce the death of our dear friend Dr. Elizabeth “Cyd” Hamilton, a marvel, who passed away on September 6th, 2022 at the age of 55. Born June 27th, 1967 in Illinois State, into this thing called Life where she fell madly in love with nature and every last one of its fantastic creatures. Trees and people and spiders and dogs and algaes and fungi. Orphaned as a teenager by the untimely death of her mother, she was driven and determined to put herself through school and a higher education in the sciences. After she earned her PhD in Plant Ecology from Arizona State University, and was published in several influential papers in Microbial Ecology, this led her to Cornell University where she finished her dissertation in 2009. She was a AAAS Fellow at the Department of Energy and worked as a visiting scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She was an arborist, advocate, activist and a self-proclaimed "Tree Doc." This work brought her around the world where she made a family of the many friends she made along her journey. People fell in love with her utter and apparent natural beauty and palpable inner depth. Her deep, whispery voice left you wanting to know more. Cyd was a witty, wise and sarcastic knockout who could knock you out. She worked tirelessly to improve the lives of people, plants, and animals. She was passionate for the arts and was proficient on the piano and loved her fine chocolate and espressos.

Dr. Elizabeth Cyd Hamilton will be acutely missed. She was loved. And beloved. She left us wanting to know more.

There will be a burial held at the Narrow Ridge Natural Burial Preserve, 1936 Liberty Hill Rd, Washburn, TN 37888, 2 p.m. Friday, September 16, 2022. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made in memory. Please consider making donations in her memory to her non-profit organization Better Nature Solutions https://givebutter.com/BetterNatureSolutions or to the following other organizations: National Resource Defense Council: https://www.nrdc.org/ and Women’s Prison Book Project: https://wpbp.org/

Arrangements by Cooke-Campbell Mortuary, Maynardville.