Alba Dolores Taylor, inspiring owner-director of Camp Sewataro, died Wednesday, November 10, 2010, at her home on the campgrounds in Sudbury after an exhausting battle with a variety of illnesses. Since founding Sewataro in 1960, Alba has been a leader in the day camp industry, setting a standard of excellence envied by many through her passion for sharing the joy of play and the mysteries of nature with generations of eager, enthusiastic campers. It all began for her with establishing a beautiful environment for children that was both emotionally and physically safe. While return to nature and anti-bullying ideologies are all the rage today, they were not so common in 1960, yet Alba knew and cherished their importance.To this day these principles remain a central credo of Camp Sewataro. For fifty years, Alba has sent thousands of Sewataro alumni out into the world, many becoming teachers, doctors, priests, rabbis, naturalists, artists, poets, entertainers, Peace Corps volunteers, hospital presidents, business entrepreneurs, and executives of major corporations. In their own ways and in their own voices, they have carried on Albas vision of enthusiastic exploration and creative play. Alba was born in 1929 in Winthrop, Massachusetts, a month after the Great Depression began. Her father, Franklin Secatore, who had emigrated from his native Italy at 8 years old, was as devastated as most young businessmen by the depression, but he would bounce back to establish a furniture store in East Boston and a pair of gas stations. His enterprising nature and unwavering commitment to work would rub off on all three of his daughters, Gloria Walsh, Paula Reschnitz, and Alba Taylor. As a young girl, Alba needed all of her fathers fighting spirit and determination to deal with a severe case of rheumatic fever, leading eventually to a life-long battle with auto-immune diseases variously diagnosed as Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, Sjogrens Syndrome, and Relapsing Polychondritis. In the mid 1930s, Albas father purchased a large tract of land in rural Sudbury, shaping its sinewy ledge and dramatic landscape into a quiet retreat from the city. Using timber from the land whose trees had been devastated by the hurricane of 1938, he and his friends built a summer home there. Alba, who at first hated being stuck in a rough-hewn cabin far away from her beloved Winthrop beach, grew to relish the wildness of the place and the opportunity to take long walks in the woods. It was not until 1960 that this passion for nature and her abiding love for children led to the founding of a summer day camp with the help of her father and sisters. With only 25 campers that year, the camps future growth and impact on childrens lives could not have been predicted. Eventually her father retired and her sisters moved away, leaving her the sole director. It was not easy being a female business owner at that time, but she took commonplace gender discrimination in stride, such as the time a local bank president told her she needed her husbands permission before she could set up a business checking account. It took only a ten minute meeting with her to convince him of the error of his thinking. From that one meeting they worked together for nearly two decades. With compassion and uncanny intuition, she instilled her philosophy of natural exploration and social cooperation into generations of counselors and children, gradually building the camp into the successful, renowned institution it is today, drawing families from over thirty suburban townships as well as Boston itself. Albas health deteriorated drastically when spinal surgery, necessitated by osteoporosis and osteomyelitis, proved unsuccessful in 2001 and a stroke befell her the following year, forcing her retirement. Her three children from her first marriage, Christine Taylor-McKenna, Mark Taylor, and Rob Taylor--who had been involved with the camp since their youthassumed the reins of the camp operation. She is survived by them and their spouses: Michael McKenna, Jan Goddard-Taylor, and Deb Taylor. Three adored grandchildren as well survive her: Cameron Taylor, Graham Taylor, and Isabella Goddard-Taylor. Alba is also survived by her husband and the love of her life, William Dowie, an English professor at Southeastern Louisiana University, whom she first met in the late 1960s. After sharing their lives for nearly twenty years between Sudbury and Hammond, La., they married in 1994. Dowie retired from teaching after Albas spinal surgery and became a devoted caregiver to the end of her life. No one ever expected Alba Taylor to live to 81 years of age, but her determination was great, and her appreciation of the gift of life was immense. She lived each day to the fullest, as if it might be her last. And while her body eventually gave out with exhaustion, at home surrounded by the love of her family, her spirit survives amongst the towering pines of Sewataro and in the hearts of all she influenced. Memorials: In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to Camp Sunshine, 35 Arcadia Road, Casco, Maine, 04015. www.campsunshine.org. Cemetery: Burial in New North Cemetery, Sudbury. Visitation: Visitation in the Dee Funeral Home, 27 Bedford Street, Concord from 4 to 7 pm on Monday, November 15th. Service: Funeral Mass on Tuesday, November 16th at 10 a.m. in Holy Family Parish, Monument Square, Concord Center.