Hanover, N.H. — Caryl Hubbard Collier passed away on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. She was born in 1927 in Chicago to Keith and Rose M. Hubbard. She grew up in Catskill, N.Y. with three older brothers. Each winter Rose would take the children out of school to go to Florida for several months. This didn’t slow her educational progress and she graduated high school at age 16 and entered Mount Holyoke College where she studied until she transferred to Cornell where she graduated in three years. Caryl came to know Gerrit S. Collier during the summers and married him immediately following her college graduation. A year later they had their only child, John P. Collier, who followed his father’s footsteps through Dartmouth. Caryl and Gerry lived first in Ossining and then Suffern, N.Y. until 1968. During that time Caryl earned a Master degree from Columbia University and began her hobby of product design. One of her first was an electrically charged bird feeder which would shock squirrels but leave the birds untouched.

During weekends in the 1950s and 60s, Caryl and Gerry designed and built a house at Round Top near Catskill. Caryl was the mason, electrician and shingler; Gerry was the plumber and they shared the carpentry and roofing tasks. In 1968 they moved for Gerry’s work to London, England. Caryl bought a horse and reignited an enthusiasm for riding that she had as a youth. In 1971 they returned to the U.S., moved into the house they built and began living off the land. They heated with wood, grew their own food, fished for trout and hunted deer. Caryl developed techniques for freezing, canning and drying food that she wrote up as Cornell Extension publications. She was an enthusiastic bread baker who loved to teach others and for years taught classes in her kitchens in N.Y., Florida and New Hampshire. Her other passion was heavy equipment operation building several ponds on her property.

In 2000 Caryl and Gerry moved to Hanover where she became active teaching Dartmouth students and neighbors to make bread, stained glass cookies, pickles and more. She loved working with young folks and made many lifelong friends. Caryl was a loving grandmother to her two grandsons and taught them her many interesting life skills. She is survived by her son John P. Collier and his wife, Nancy, of Hanover and grandsons Robert and Thomas Collier and daughter in law Andrea Collier of Park City, Utah.