Elizabeth Epling Twombly passed away at home in Lexington, Massachusetts surrounded by family on September 28, 2015 at the age of 86.

Born in Los Angeles in 1929 to Carl C. Epling (Professor of Botany, U.C.L.A.) and Ruth G. Persons, she graduated with a B.A. in Zoology from U.C.L.A. in 1951. She accompanied her father on many fieldwork trips in the mountains and deserts of California.

In 1951 she moved to Amherst, Massachusetts and was a teaching assistant in Comparative Anatomy at Amherst College. Later, she worked as a research technician in biology and biochemistry at several laboratories including those of Raymond E. Stephens, at Brandeis University, and Paul and Helga Doty, at Harvard University. She is a co-author of multiple scientific papers, including "Linkage Maps in Chlamydomonas reinhardi (Genetics, 1962) and "The Formation of Polylysogens during Infection of Escherichia coli with Bacteriophage lambda" (Virology, 1975). She remained interested in the biological sciences after retirement.

She is survived by her husband of thirty years, John A. Twombly, with whom she shared a love of the White Mountains, New Hampshire, and traveled widely in Europe and the United States, and son, Gregory P.A. Levine of El Cerrito, CA.

The family will hold a private service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her honor to the Nature Conservancy or the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology.