The former Dunedin deputy mayor died in hospital yesterday morning aged 87, her family confirmed.
Dame Elizabeth’s son David Hanan remembered his mother as a woman who loved a political battle, or campaign, and who had an ability to get "an enormous amount of stuff done".
"She wasn’t called ‘the bulldozer’ in Dunedin for nothing," Mr Hanan said.
"She had this amazing ability to see the best in people and to make things happen."
Dame Elizabeth was first elected to the Dunedin City Council in 1986.
She served two terms as deputy mayor of Dunedin, under mayor Sukhi Turner, from 1998 to 2004.
Her career began as a science teacher.
Mr Hanan said her role as the driving force in establishing the New Zealand International Science Festival in 1998 would likely be her lasting legacy.
In 2010, she was named the festival’s first life member.
She served on a range of community organisations, including the Otago Museum Trust, Keep Dunedin Beautiful, the Fortune Theatre and the national executive of the Plunket Society.
In 1993, she was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.
She was made Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the community, in 1998.
"She was involved, not just with the stuff in Dunedin, but in everything she touched," Mr Hanan said.
Born on August 21, 1937, in Melbourne, Australia, she moved to Dunedin in 1946 when her father Sir John Walsh was appointed professor of dentistry at the University of Otago.
In a statement, the family said Dame Elizabeth died yesterday "just as the sun rose".
"She was a magnificent woman, who dedicated her whole life and self to this city, the university, and to the many, many community organisations she championed."
She was predeceased by her husband Murray Hanan, and greatly mourned by those who loved her - son David, daughters Alison and Jude, daughter-in-law Jill, son-in-law Paul, grandchildren Jack, Luca, Rosa and Jesse, brother John, sister Jenny, and countless lifelong friends and colleagues, the statement said.
Mr Hanan said his mother suffered from a series of strokes in later life.
Most recently, she suffered a stroke-related seizure, which eventually caused her brain to shut down and then, finally, heart failure.
The family were thankful for the outstanding care and support Dame Elizabeth received in her last few days from the "special people" at Dunedin Hospital’s ward 8, he said.
An obituary will follow.
