Linda Cotler Elwell, much loved mother, wife, sister and friend, passed away on June 13, 2024 after a brief battle with cancer. She will be forever remembered by family and friends for her wise counsel and sharp sense of humor.
Linda was proud to have grown up in Flushing, Queens, NY across the street from the P.S. 214 playground and around the corner from the Flushing Swim Club, with lots of playmates and friends. An avid reader with an eye for editing, she developed her love of Philadelphia as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania during the city’s initial restaurant renaissance, then as a law student at Villanova.
In her legal career she was an associate at a large Philadelphia law firm, in-house corporate counsel and taught legal research and writing as an adjunct professor. Teaching and working with students came naturally to Linda and she later returned to school to pursue a calling as a high school guidance counselor.
Linda moved to Mount Holly, then to Moorestown, New Jersey in the 1980s. As a mom to two daughters, she loved selflessly and unconditionally. Her small joys included reading the paper versions of The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times in the home she loved, and during the holidays watching the 1951 film version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol starring Alastair Sim.
For Linda, life was about walking and hiking for miles and laughing with family and friends. Some of her fondest memories with those close to her included cross-country skiing in the Adirondacks and Vermont, annual lobster and clam fest weekends in Connecticut, and joining with the collective of friends who for 25 years put on the original DeCafe house concert series at Moorestown’s Perkins Center for the Arts.
Before multiple sclerosis slowed her steps and cut short her stride, Linda hiked
and walked on the Isle of Skye, on St. Barts, on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula,
in Yellowstone and the Tetons, in Paris, Florence, Quebec and Vancouver, in the Adirondacks, California, Maine and the White and Green Mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont, in the Jersey Pinelands and on Island Beach. The walk closest to her heart was the long, steep trek up Staples Road to Danby Hill in Vermont.
Linda is survived by her husband of 40 years, Ken Elwell; daughters Marjory Elwell and Charlotte Elwell; son-in-law Scott Moore; and brother Alan Cotler. Contributions in her memory may be made to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. A life celebration will be held this summer.
