Harriet Provine

Harriet was born in 1933 in Battle Creek, Michigan where her mother's family lived. During her childhood her parents Robert C. Provine and Harriet Thoms moved several times before settling in Nashville TN, where her father was president of Ward Belmont College (later Belmont University). Here Harriet spent most of her school years, and became the oldest of five children as the family grew. She loved reading, swimming and diving; the latter interest having developed at the family summer cottage in White Bluff near Nashville. Harriet attended the college preparatory division of Ward-Belmont where she excelled in their elite swim precision swim group, and read extensively, graduating in 1951. In 1950 while Harriet was a student at Vanderbilt University, the family built a house in Brentwood south of Nashville which Harriet's mother, a trained architect designed. While they raised chickens, Harriet completed her degree in biology in 1955. After teaching biology at Westtown School for several years, she began work in the infectious disease lab at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her stunning slides of bacteria and previous teaching experience eventually led to a part-time teaching position at the Harvard Medical School where her lectures were among the most entertaining and memorable. She then partnered with colleague Pierce Gardner to produce a book, "Manual of Acute Bacterial Infections," in 1983. This background formed the basis for Harriet's astoundingly diverse interests: history, botany, biology, etymology, art, photography, and much else. She was constantly collecting data for some future project, and to that end amassed a huge book collection. She walked to Harvard Square, rain or shine nearly every day and swam in the Harvard pool. None who knew her will forget her amazing frugality and ability to design household items from scrap. She traveled widely, including Tasmania, Asia, and Europe, creating some beautiful and fascinating slide photos and collecting curios. In her later years Harriet continued her lifetime hobbies: making most of her own clothes, building a workroom and storage in the attic mostly out of salvaged items, maintaining interesting plants, doing silk screening, writing a children's book, producing custom T-shirts, cooking, supporting local historical organizations, and being landlady for two apartments in her three-story house in Cambridge. Travels took her to Indonesia where she was particularly taken with a stay at the orangutan rescue center in Borneo. Even as she declined Harriet remained an entertaining conversationalist, spreading her infectious southern accent and unrestrained laughter. Two younger siblings, John C. and William B. preceded her in death. She leaves her sister Christina Johnson of Boulder, CO and brother Robert Provine of Redmond, WA; nieces Anne Laurie Twarogowski, Gillian Johnson, Harriet and Frances Provine; and nephews, Dean Johnson, Robert Provine, Charles and Stuart Provine, and Stephen and John Provine. Text and pictures on this site compiled by Harriet's brother Robert Provine, his wife Jean, and sister Christina Johnson.