The Public Side of a Private Person

 

Elizabeth Hanson '02

News reports described CIA agent Elizabeth Hanson ’02 as a soft-spoken young woman who studied economics and Russian at Colby and who quietly set out on the path that would lead to her death.

Serious student? Yes, say her close Colby friends. Soft-spoken? No way.

"She was anything but quiet or soft-spoken," said Roary Stasko ’99, who had known Hanson since she was a first-year living in East Quad. “She was loud and funny and goofy most of the time but also had a very serious side to her.”

Her classmates’ portrait of Hanson, who was killed along with six of her Central Intelligence Agency colleagues by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan Dec. 30, is of an exuberant, quirky, caring young woman who made friends quickly and moved easily among groups. “She really did know everybody on campus,” said Lindsey Scott McGeehan ’01, a close friend since freshman year. “But Elizabeth was actually very hard to get to know. A very friendly and warm and sweet personality—but also very guarded.”

Those seemingly conflicting traits would suit Hanson’s future career. In December, after her death, it was revealed that she was stationed at a CIA base in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. She was killed when a man being cultivated as an informant was ushered into a meeting with CIA operatives. Instead of cooperating, he detonated a bomb he had concealed under his clothing.

McGeehan, a recruiter for a Boston consulting firm, said she only knew her longtime friend worked for the government and that she was in Afghanistan. But McGeehan said she wasn’t surprised when Hanson’s status with the intelligence agency was revealed. “The minute I heard it was Afghanistan and it was the CIA, I just knew without a doubt it was her,” she said.

According to Stasko, a management consultant in the United Arab Emirates, Hanson was a social liberal, passionate about politics, and opinionated, and she enjoyed debating issues. “She came at things not from arguing a point, but questioning how anyone could take an opposing view. When you would challenge her, she would come back with points to support [her point of view],” Stasko said.

Hanson was organized and diligent in her studies, but attention deficit disorder, for which she took medication, meant academic success didn’t come easily. “She struggled a lot,” McGeehan said. “She couldn’t sit still in the library. It wasn’t easy for her to sit down with books.” But Hanson’s raw intelligence and drive carried her, she said, and likely propelled her career after Colby. “My guess is that she was just passionate about this, and it brought out the best side of her.”

A scholarship fund has been established at Colby in honor of Elizabeth Hanson’s life and in keeping with her wish to aid underprivileged students. To donate online go to www.colby.edu/campaign/endowment/hanson_fund.cfm, or search for Elizabeth
Hanson on the Colby website. Checks can be sent to Colby College, c/o Chris Marden,  4345 Mayflower Hill, Waterville, ME 04901.

Comments

• On March 3, 2010, D wrote:
  I feel like this article is overly critical of Elizabeth and makes light of her accomplishments. Her story is not a mystery novel and does not need ominous foreshadowing like the line "who quietly set out on the path that would lead to her death" to make it interesting. Next time Colby publishes a feature article on a "private person" with no say in the content I hope the author will be more sensitive.
• On March 4, 2010, Fly Caster from the East wrote:
  Wow. This person *clearly* did not know Elizabeth well at all!!! Afraid of commitment? Afraid of marriage? Laughable! She was ALL about commitment and just had not settled down yet. I guess everything you could want to make an article about a person is summed up by what you can scrape off of facebook after not seeing someone in almost 10 years. The real people in Elizabeth's life would never think of doing that! The quality and factual nature of this article is sincerely lacking. Really old picture by the way. She was far more beautiful than the one posted. She was a true class act, one to be remembered. And she will be.
• On March 4, 2010, 2001 wrote:
  Fly Caster... Elizabeth used Lindsey as a character witness for the CIA, they talked on the phone, wrote, and kept in touch while Elizabeth was in Afghanistan, I find it interesting that you think she "clearly" did not know Elizabeth well. Lindsey was saying that Elizabeth was afraid of being too close to others, or "committed", due to her line of work... being in the CIA. Don't assume you know the relationship between the people quoted and the subject b/c of the quotes selected for a Colby article... you obviously have no idea what you are talking about. Regardless, Elizabeth will be greatly missed. She was in fact a wonderful, loving and caring friend who gave her life for us all... it is nice that Colby ran a piece about her.
• On March 10, 2010, East Quad wrote:
  I don't know who these comments are from, but based on my relationship with Liz, Lindsey draws a detailed, and more importantly, true, portrait of the person that we knew at Colby. It's without a doubt that Liz matured and changed over the years in ways that those of us who have not seen her much since her Colby years cannot fully grasp, but Lindsey eloquently distills the immutable aspects of her character, which have not changed, and won't. I commend Lindsey for finding words that I myself have had difficulty in articulating. Liz - the person - not the CIA operative, was special and won't be forgotten. Bickering over who knew her best is, at worst, disrespectful, and at best, fruitless. To the extent anyone can truly be known, we know Liz as that special person in our memories and we will not forget her.
• On March 11, 2010, Lindsey McGeehan wrote:
  Fly caster, I sincerely apologize that you took offense to this article as you were obviously close to Elizabeth. There has been enough grief and it was not my intention to cause any more. While I agree that any sort of debate is not respectful to Elizabeth, I want to be sure that you know Elizabeth was someone I loved. I spoke to the interviewer for over an hour about her, and from that a few comments were pulled out; they do not sum up to total of what I said, nor how I feel about Elizabeth. I have nothing but for respect for her and always have. I could not agree more that she was a class act, one that radiated energy and enthusiasm. I was very clear in my interview that Elizabeth and I had limited contact over the last two years, and that most of my interactions with her were online; this was a small piece of the interview, but it happens to be what is captured here. My goal was to give more life to Elizabeth than "CIA agent", a glimpse of the girl I knew at Colby...someone who was extremely loyal and selfless, someone who worked hard to achieve her goals while keeping a smile on her face. My comment about marriage, kids, etc. was pulled from a conversation I recounted having with Elizabeth freshman year of college. I do not believe that I said she was "afraid" of these things, but instead not overly concerned with or focused on them as an end goal. Clearly she was not afraid of commitment in her life as demonstrated by her devotion to her mother, career and friends. I am sorry for your loss, and for the loss we have all suffered with Elizabeth's death; I hope you understand that I loved and respected Elizabeth a great deal and my only goal in giving this interview was to shine light on the friend that I miss. Colby, thank you for taking the time to write about her.
• On March 15, 2010, Eric Decker wrote:
  Sources give opinions regarding various subjects.....Opinions are just that. It's the author's job and responsibility to take all the fact and opinion and create a accurate picture of the subject. I find this article to be lacking in both substance and spirit. Considering that this heavy subject affects so many in the Colby community, it would have been better to not write a feature like this at all. Or, an even better approach would have been to have talked with more people and written a more comprehensive and accurate depiction of someone who is obviously multi-layered. To do a quick breeze-over piece merely cheapens the entire story.
• On June 2, 2010, Mic T'Lu wrote:
  I'm thankful for the story---brief, poignant, carefully shared by Gerry Boyle '78---of a cherished Colby friend; thankful, too, for this place where additional comments can add to that story; and thankful, most of all, for the experience of being part of the world-wide Colby family.
• On June 2, 2010, Mic T'Lu, formerly Gabriel Alexander/T.Wakeman '79/'91 wrote:
  THIS GIFT OF MISSING YOU
  
  It was a Gift we didn't want,
  This Gift of missing you: Wanting, and wanting and wanting
  you to be well, to be happy, to be here with us...
  It was a Gift we did not want, this longing we feel: Longing,
  and longing, and longing to see you again---to hold your hand
  in our hand, your heart in our heart.
  It was a Gift we didn't want, this vancancy we feel...
  like a hotel, with too many rooms, empty.
  Gone, gone, gone. People keep going... But where do they go?
  They go.......on.... to GOD! And GOD is everywhere! ZING!
  In an instant, we see flashes of your hope, and your beauty, and
  your joy; and all the rest, falls away. What we have left, is love.
  Your love here abides with is, Elizabeth;
  And, Elizabeth, we are there, with you, with our love.