Elinor Greenberg

IJN StaffSep 24, 2021Obituaries0

Elinor Greenberg

Elinor Miller Greenberg, longtime women’s and civil rights activist, passed away Sept. 15, 2021, in Centennial. Funeral services were held at Emanuel Cemetery on Sept. 19.

Mrs. Greenberg, known to many as “Ellie,” was born in New York on Nov. 13, 1932. She was a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and the University of Wisconsin. She later earned a doctoral degree in lifelong education from the University of Northern Colorado

She came to Colorado in 1954 to work as a speech therapist and quickly became a community activist, finding ways to provide access to opportunity for women and minorities. She helped create Colorado’s Fair Housing laws. In 1964, she was part of a team that brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Littleton.

Mrs. Greenberg was one of the first to create learner-centered educational programs in Colorado, heading University Without Walls, an individualized bachelor’s degree program for adults.

She wrote nine books on women’s education and aging and led a series of feminist luncheons featuring female authors from Colorado.

Mrs. Greenberg was a board member on many non-profits and commissions, including the Colorado Judicial Institute, for which she initiated the “Our Courts Colorado” program.

Mrs. Greenberg was the recipient of numerous awards, including Citizen of the Year by Omega Psi Phi, Woman of the Decade by Littleton Newspapers, and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Award. She was a member of the Colorado and International Women’s Forums and an inductee of the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.

Mrs. Greenberg was married for 53 years to the late Manuel “Manny” Greenberg.

She is survived by daughters Andrea “Andy” Greenberg and Julie (David) Richman, and son, Michael (Elizabeth) Greenberg; grandchildren Joshua Richman, Adam Richman, Madeline Greenberg and Alexandra Greenberg; sister Carol Miller and stepbrother Michael Miller.

Contributions may be made to the Ellie and Manny Greenberg Scholarship Fund (Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship) at Arapahoe Community College, 5900 South Santa Fe Dr., Littleton, CO, 80120, or the Class of ’53 Scholarship Fund at Mount Holyoke College, 50 College St., South Hadley, MA, 01075.