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In 1970, needing more space and better
facilities, Burroughs Wellcome moved from New York
to Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Although
Elion was sad to leave the area in which she had
lived her entire life, she never considered not
moving with the company. She returned regularly to
New York to attend her beloved Metropolitan Opera,
where she retained her season subscription, but she
quickly grew to love North Carolina.
In 1983, after almost four decades at Burroughs
Wellcome, Elion retired from active research. She
remained "about as unretired as anyone can
be," however, serving as Emerita Scientist and
consultant to the company, sitting on committees
and editorial boards for organizations from the
World Health Organization to the National Cancer
Advisory Board, lecturing across the United States
and abroad, and serving as research professor at
Duke University. Not wanting to stop learning, she
continued to attend professional meetings.
Elion also traveled widely; an adventurous
globetrotter throughout her life, she had already
seen most of the world, and she extended almost
every professional trip she took with personal
travel. A few years before she died, a relative
joked that she had been everywhere except
Antarctica. The following year, Elion signed up for
a cruise to Antarctica.
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