Elaine Grace Polsten Boettcher died on Oct. 3 in Lexington, in the company of family and after 93 years of a graceful life.

She was born in Farmington, Conn. on June 29, 1930 during the first summer of the Great Depression. Her parents, Edward and Grace Polsten, were of English and Danish ancestry.

In her family and professional lives, Elaine was a catalyst for new opportunity and never stopped dreaming about what lay ahead. She cultivated love in her family, respect and curiosity for other cultures and a passion for continuous learning.

She studied at the University of Hartford, where she achieved her nursing registration, and Boston University, from which she received her bachelor of science. After her studies, she moved to San Diego, then San Francisco and then Ann Arbor, Mich., where she raised two young boys, practiced hospital nursing and met the love of her life, Peter Boettcher. With the boys, Elaine and Peter moved to Wilmington, Del. in 1964 and were married that summer in Frankfurt, Germany.

After giving birth to two additional children, Elaine spearheaded the family’s move to Newark, De. where she obtained her master’s degree and became a college professor and member of the faculty senate, later associate professor emerita of nursing, at the University of Delaware.

Her professional achievements included becoming both a registered nurse and an associate professor of psychiatric mental health nursing, plus publishing in several peer-reviewed journals, including Perspectives in Psychiatric Care and the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services. She was nominated by her students and won an award for excellence in teaching.

Her intellectual curiosity led her to continue academic pursuits into her eighties, studying for several years and serving on the curriculum committee at the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement while living in Cambridge.

Always an advocate for equality, she worked with the League of Women’s Voters, American Association of University Women (AAUW) and others to shine her bright light on the value of diverse perspectives. She sought multiculturalism through her choice of roommates in college, friends in her neighborhood and travels abroad with her German-American husband, Peter.

Elaine loved New England and stewarded her family’s summers on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1970s, eventually breaking ground in 1982 for a cottage in Edgartown. She lived in Edgartown full-time as of 2015 and was an active member of the Martha’s Vineyard Poets Collective.

Throughout her life, she enjoyed playing the piano and Amazing Grace was a favorite. She was a voracious reader and avid painter, mostly in acrylics but also oils and watercolors.

Elaine was predeceased by her husband, Dr. F. Peter Boettcher, in 2003. She is survived by her children Timothy Rockwood and his wife Jessica of Kensington, Md., Jeffrey Rockwood of St. Petersburg, Fla., Stefan Boettcher and his wife Amy Jochem of Houston, Tex. and Audra Myerberg and her husband Jonah of Lexington, along with seven grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m. at Chapman Funerals and Cremations in Oak Bluffs.

Memorial donations may be directed to Hospice and Palliative Care of Martha’s Vineyard, P.O. Box 1748, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.