Edith N. Meyer, Loving Mother of 11, Dies at 90

Edith Noyes Knight Meyer, 90, daughter of the late Mrs. Emily Greene and C.P. Knight Jr., died on December 7, 2013. To those both far and wide she was known affectionately as Nod. 

Upon graduation from the Garrison Forest School in Baltimore, MD., Nod attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY. On Nov. 27, 1943, she married Henry H. Meyer, Jr. in Providence, Rhode Island.

Nod led a very active life both on the home front and in the horticultural world. She was the mother of eleven children, four sons and seven daughters: Henry, Anne, the late Edith (known as Pen), Heather, Diana, Daphne, Jenny, Timothy, Matthew, Jessie and James, who in turn provided her with thirty-seven grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren.

After World War Two she lived in four communities-Boston, Hamilton/Wenham, Belmont and Matunuck, RI. A passionate and skilled gardener, one of Nod’s favorite activities was as a volunteer at the Dana Greenhouses of the Arnold Arboretum where, for 25 years, she propagated incoming material from around the world. Nod held many positions in the Horticultural World, including president of the New England unit of the Herb Society of America, the president of the Belmont Garden Club. Locally, she was a member of the South County unit of the Garden Clubs of America.

Education was another passion of Nod’s. She was a founding trustee of the Pingree School in Hamilton, Massachusetts, and while in Hamilton, she was an active participant in many phases at the nearby Beverly Hospital.

After she moved to Belmont, Nod became involved in the environmental affairs of the town. She was a staunch defender of the integrity of the land, seeking to honor beauty wherever she went, and was not afraid to speak her mind to protect it, even if it meant taking on the Corporate World.

Nod loved to explore the world on foot. In later years, she traveled extensively with her husband on business trips to the Far East and hiking trips to Northern Italy and Devon, England. Februaries were spent in Anguilla, an island she held close in her heart, making friends and impressing all who met her with her kind and gentle nature.

Memorial gifts in her behalf would be gratefully received by Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston, MA 02130-3500, Henry H. Meyer, Jr.

A service will be held at St. Peter’s-by-the-Sea, 72 Central Street, Narragansett, RI, Dec. 12 at 11 a.m. Family and friends would be most welcome.