CAPE ELIZABETH – Elizabeth Otterson Wiley passed away on March 29, 2021 in Portland. She was born at the Chelsea Naval Shipyard on June 3, 1947. She was the first child of Lt. Col. (USMC) Donald Brian Otterson and Elizabeth King Otterson and older sister to Mark and Brian Otterson. They lived in several locations around the county during her formative years and one of her first memories was having the base bugler as a babysitter and he would have to stop and take her outside to blow taps in the evening before bed. When her father retired from the Marine Corps in 1963 she moved to Paris Hill.

She graduated from Oxford Hills High School in 1965. She attended the University of Maine at Orono from 1965 to 1969 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and Speech. She married Peter Wiley on August 24, 1968 and in 1969 Peter enlisted in the Unites States Navy. He was stationed in Rota, Spain from 1970 to 1973 and Elizabeth joined him during that time.

In 1974 after his discharge from the Navy, Peter and Elizabeth moved to Yarmouth with their new daughter, Martha. “Betsy”, as she was known to her friends and family, continued her education and was in the first class for the “Teachers for Secondary School” project offered through the University of Southern Maine. Upon completion of the course in 1980, she did her practice teaching at Deering High School in Portland. She was then hired for her first teaching job at Catherine McAuley High School in 1981. She simultaneously started work on her master’s in education through the University of Southern Maine and received her degree in 1984. Her next job was teaching English at Cape Elizabeth High School in Cape Elizabeth from 1981 to 1995.

Betsy entered the doctoral program at The George Washington University in Washington D.C. in 1997 and graduated with her Doctorate in American Studies in 2005. After receiving her doctorate, she worked as a researcher for Frank Goodyear at the Smithsonian Institute helping to write Zaida Ben-Yusuf.

In 1999 her granddaughter, Grace, was born. In 2006 her husband Peter passed away.

From 2011 to 2021, Betsy taught four “New 21st century Novels” each semester for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Southern Maine. She was helped greatly by Sarah Franklin who was her mentor at Deering High School and later asked her to co-teach and develop this course for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. In 2014, Sarah Franklin retired and moved to Vermont and the collaboration stopped.

In the summer of 2020 Betsy started receiving letters from her students that she had taught at Cape Elizabeth and she wanted them to know that the letters brought her much joy. Betsy wanted her friends to know that she has been extraordinarily lucky to have them in her life and she is very grateful to them all for their help and their kindness.

Betsy was predeceased by her husband, Peter; and her brother, Mark.

She is survived by her daughter, Martha Wiley; and her granddaughter, Grace Wiley. She is also survived by her brother, Brian Otterson and his wife Sherri of Norway, and her sister-in-law, Sarah Otterson of South Paris; and nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held on Wednesday, April 7, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Hobbs Funeral Home, 230 Cottage Rd., South Portland. Online condolences may be expressed at http://www.hobbsfuneralhome.com.

In lieu of flowers, Betsy would like donations to be made to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute or the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland.

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