Elizabeth L. Sturz, Salvaged Troubled Lives, Dies at 93

An inspiring obituary by Douglas Martin for The New York Times

Elizabeth L. Sturz, who started and ran renowned programs to help troubled youths and people suffering from both mental illness and drug addiction — all to further her goal “to be of use” — died on Thursday in Manhattan. She was 93.

The cause was pneumonia, her family said.

Mrs. Sturz had lived a full life before she plunged into the urban wasteland of the South Bronx in 1968. She had been a poet, circus acrobat, novelist, soap opera writer, ghostwriter forMadame Chiang Kai-shek and wife of Alan Lomax, the famous folklorist.

Read the rest.