GOSHEN, NY – Dorothy Stevens Wells was born May 16, 1915 in Westfield, Massachusetts to Florence Loomis Stevens and Harold Mark Stevens.Dottie and her sister, Ruth, were raised by their parents in the home built by their great grandparents, Merwin and Lydia Loomis. She graduated in music education from Oberlin College in 1938, and taught public school music in Louisville, KY and Westfield, MA. Returning to Oberlin for graduate work, she met and married Richard Albert Wells in 1945. They moved to Pittsburgh where Dick taught at Carnegie Mellon. Dottie began teaching in a preschool operated by her church, now Eastminster Presbyterian, in 1955. In 1966 she joined the War on Poverty, teaching in Head Start. She became head teacher at the Point Park College laboratory preschool in 1967.
In 1981, Dick and Dottie moved to Bristol Village, a retirement community in Waverly OH, where they enjoyed an active life. Dottie sang in the Bristol Village chorale and conducted the women’s chorus. She began a fascination with hummingbirds, led several community organizations, took up basket weaving, and, with her sister, established the “Bristol Nook,” a gift shop selling residents’ arts and crafts. Dottie lost Dick to cancer in 1987; she remained in Bristol Village until a move in 2000 to Glen Arden Retirement Community in Goshen, NY. Her activities there included teaching basket making and taking up painting. She died at Glen Arden on November 23, 2012.
Dottie is survived by daughter and son-in-law, Ruth Wells and Jim Knight of Peekskill, NY; daughter and son-in-law, Betsy Wells and Jerry Allen and their daughter, Leah Allen of Seattle, WA; niece, Judy Moore, and grand-nephew, Jonathan Moore, both of Searsport, ME.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Bristol Village Foundation or a charity of your choice.
