Elizabeth Bitzer Selman died at her home on Oct. 28, in Fort Collins, Colo. after a two-year battle with cancer. She was 58.

Polly, as she was called, was born Nov. 14, 1959, in Los Angeles, Calif. to John Frederick Bitzer Jr. and the late Mary Adams Bitzer. Polly grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa., attending Kerr Elementary School and Dorseyville Middle School. For high school, she graduated from The MacDuffie School in Springfield.

She then enrolled at the University of Wyoming for two years before taking up residence in Jackson, Wyo. at a ranch that was the last remaining parcel of private land within Teton National Park. The ranch had been long-abandoned. Undeterred, the two women fixed up one of the cabins and lived there, without electricity or running water, for over a year while enjoying mountain life.

Later, she attended the Katharine Gibbs School in Boston. Upon graduation, she returned to Pittsburgh to work at Western Psychiatric Hospital as an administrative assistant, where she met Daniel R. Dusch Jr. and the two were soon married.

Daniel enlisted in the Marine Corps and was subsequently stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu, Hawai’i. Still determined to earn her college degree, Polly enrolled at the University of Hawai’i and began taking classes toward a bachelor of science degree in geography. She achieved her goal while welcoming her first son, Daniel R. Dusch 3rd, into the world one month before graduation. Now a full-time mom, Polly Selman’s Hawai’i experience was followed by a couple of years back in Pittsburgh, where her second son, Benjamin, was born. A job opportunity for Daniel next took them to Sparta, N.J., where she had her third son, Trevor. Polly and her husband divorced in 1995. She taught herself about computer hardware and software. She used that knowledge to land a job as a software troubleshooter for a company that spe cialized in software systems for hospital emergency rooms. Polly used that experience to strike out on her own and establish her own software consulting firm.

On Nov. 14, 2004, Polly married Byron Selman in a ceremony on Harbor Island, Bahamas. She managed her consulting business remotely and, in 2006, Polly and Byron relocated to the Turks and Caicos Islands, a place they had frequented over the years. They spent summers in the Fort Collins, Colo. area in their Airstream, with occasional visits to her family home on Martha’s Vineyard, where her family has spent summers since 1972, and where she loved to vacation growing up.

Her first and only grandchild, Alek, was born to her oldest son, Daniel, and his wife Natalie in 2013. Polly took great joy and delight in her grandson.

Following Polly’s most recent cancer diagnosis, she and Byron moved to Fort Collins to live out her remaining days.

She was predeceased by her mother, Mimi.

She is survived by her husband, Byron, her sons, Dan, Ben and Trevor, her grandson, her father, John, her brothers, John and Charlie.

She was a free-spirited, fiercely independent, fun-loving, strong-willed and loyal woman who loved the outdoors and loved life. Polly also had a great capacity for loving others, and she will be missed by many.

Memorial contributions may be made to: The Pine Cay Project c/o Maggie Baczkowski, Treasurer, 55 East Erie No. 5600, Chicago, IL 60611.