Ellen Katharine Murphy Bonn

Ellen Katharine Murphy Bonn, long-time resident of the Ithaca area, passed away March 10, 2016. She was born April 13, 1938 to Francis and Alice (Watson) Murphy of Florence, New Jersey, the second of three daughters. Ellen treasured her growing-up years in a small town along the banks of the Delaware River. When she was twelve her family moved to Wyandotte, Michigan, where she completed high school and her undergraduate education at Marygrove College in Detroit. She then matriculated at New York University where she earned a master's degree in book publishing and met her future husband, Thomas Bonn.
Ellen established a professional niche marketing and promoting children's books and continued that work after her family moved to the Ithaca area in 1966. Beginning in 1979 she started to do freelance editorial work at Cornell University and eventually worked in the department of Media Services, beginning in 1979 and continuing for the next twenty years. She was group manager of the Publications and Web Services Unit when she retired in 1998.
Ellen was active in many community activities, especially those involving reading. She was especially proud of the fifty years she devoted to the Friends of the Library Book Sale. In addition to the Friends she served on the boards of the Finger Lakes Library System, the Tompkins County Public Library, the South Central Library Council, the Dewitt Historical Society (now the History Center), Literacy Volunteers of Tompkins County (now Tompkins Learning Partners), and the Family Reading Partnership's Traveling Books program.
During the years the family lived in Etna, Ellen headed the Etna Community Association and the Etna-Freeville Community Nursery School. She organized and ran Etna's Fall Creek White Water Derby during its first decade.

Ellen's legacy is reflected in her family. With all of her professional and volunteer commitments, there was never any doubt that family was her first and foremost priority. She was a swim parent for 14 years and spent much of the 1980s driving to practices and meets around the region. She was an avid reader and shared this love of reading with her children and grandchildren at every opportunity. A book, both its intellectual message and its physical form and design, delighted and inspired her. Her commitment to community and the belief that change is possible when people get involved is instilled in all of us. Finally, she encouraged all of her family members to find and follow their passions in both in their personal and professional lives. She wanted us all to surround ourselves with smart, loyal people, to be kind and to always know that we were loved.
Her parents and a sister, Anne Alepra, predeceased Ellen. She is survived by her husband of 52 years, Thomas; a son, Fred of Trumansburg and his two sons, Mason and Logan; a daughter, Amy Bonn (Richard Schaefer) and their children, Maxwell Murphy and Katharine, of Plattsburgh; and a sister, Alice, of Clinton Township, Michigan, plus many cousins, nephews, and nieces. Special friends Nancy Fuhr and the Boehm and Fuhr families, Barbara Gegg, Anne Adams and Zora Adams-Williams.

The family would like to thank Hospicare and Palliative Care Services, Dr. Adam Law and his staff, and Dr. Lynn Swisher for the extraordinaire care and compassion they provided. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Ellen's name to Tompkins Learning Partners. A memorial service is planned for 11 am on Sunday, May 15th at North Point, Pavilion Taughannock State Park.