Elmira College Dedicates Peterson Chapel

Elmira College’s one-hundred fifty-second Reunion concluded with the dedication of Peterson Chapel.

Elizabeth “Li” Peterson Rettie ’50 came to Elmira College from Greenwich, Connecticut, and graduated with an A.B. in Economics. After a brief stint in life insurance, Li founded her own pension consulting firm, eventually selling her share in the company and pursuing her own highly successful actuarial consulting business. She also designed, built, and leases out a retail-office building in downtown Greenwich.

Pursuing her lifelong love of sailing, she is a member of both the Riverside Yacht Club and the New York Yacht Club. Li has won several awards, including the Riverside Yacht Club distance cruise in 1998 and 1999 on her sailboat ÄLSKLING. In 1994, the Riverside Yacht Club named her Lady of the Year.

Li is a strong advocate of philanthropy. Because she benefited from an Elmira College scholarship, Li established the Joseph H. and Ellen A. Peterson Scholarship during the New Century Campaign, in memory of her parents. In 2004, she became an active and invaluable member of the Board of Trustees. 

In recognition of her significant planned gift to the current Legacy & Destiny Campaign, one of the largest gifts in the College’s history, Elmira College named the new chapel in the east wing of Cowles Hall, the Peterson Chapel. Li reminisces that during her first year at Elmira College, she served as the “bell girl” in Cowles Hall, answering the door as students returned from holiday. The Peterson Chapel plaque reads, “Elizabeth Peterson Rettie ’50, Cowles Hall Bell Girl, 1946.”