[2] Paepcke is remembered as the Grand Dame of Aspen due to her love and promotion of the small mining town into the skiing destination it later became.
Paepcke with her husband Walter also played an important role in bringing the Goethe Bicentennial Convocation to Aspen in 1949.
[7] Elizabeth Paepcke was the daughter of William Albert Nitze, a chairman of Romance Languages at the University of Chicago.,[2] and Anna Sophia Hilken.
She was married to Walter Paepcke, and she was the sister of American diplomatic figure Paul Nitze.
When interviewed late in her life, she explained how she felt, "Aspen can't be swallowed by the avariciousness of those who don't understand the reason for its existence" [8] She died in Aspen from head injuries resulting from a fall.