Dorothy Witmer

Our loving and courageous mother, Dorothy Marie Abbott Witmer, has been released from this mortal life to join our dad, Joseph, and our sister, Mary Theresa, in heaven. She poured 89 years of her heart and soul into her family, her faith, her community, her friends and her accomplished career. Our mother lived an enormous life that will be impossible to summarize or abbreviate, but here is our loving attempt. Dorothy was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 18, 1929 to Frank Asbury Abbott, a brick layer who doted on her, and to Mary Josephine Abbott, a seamstress and extraordinary money manager and maker of world class rice pudding, taking her place as the fifth daughter and the 9th child in the family. The challenges she faced as the last child of a large Catholic family, growing up during the Depression, proved to be no obstacle for our mother. While her older brothers and sisters were forced to leave school early to work, she excelled in school and in athletics and she was singled out with awards for both throughout her high school years. She would say this made her the most fortunate of her siblings. She loved English and Science and was a standout in field hockey and basketball and softball, not only for her skills, but for her sportsmanship and academic leadership. The only subject she ever expressed a distaste for was typing – hallelujah, Mom! She was the first in her family to own and drive a car. Her father was so proud, he would polish it for her in the driveway. Dorothy's mother was her rock and passed on her deep faith and determination. So, it is no wonder our mother, Dorothy, inspired our family in the same, enduring way. Our mother was intrepid and eternally optimistic. She began her career in Nursing following graduation from Clifton Heights High School in the spring of 1947, as the class Salutatorian. She was awarded a $300 scholarship that proved to be the seed money for enrollment in the Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing. Here, she would learn her life’s work in a 2,900-bed hospital, recognized as one of the nation’s finest teaching hospitals. Her “probie” days were difficult, but her 3-year education and experiences at PGH prepared her for entry into the United States Air Force in 1951. In 1953, she was assigned to the 801st Medical Air Evacuation Squadron (MAES) and stationed in Tachikawa, Japan as a Flight Nurse participating in the evacuation of South Korean soldiers during the Korean War. Following the war, Mom went back to work at PGH while enrolled in Nursing School at Villanova University and fulfilling her AF reserve duty. She graduated in 1957, and immediately applied for graduate school in Public Health Nursing at Catholic University in Washington D.C. During this time, she went back to active duty and was reassigned to Olmstead AFB near Harrisburg, PA where she was promoted to Captain. She took an assignment at Minot, AFB in North Dakota, enticed with higher wages and the chance to pay for the remainder of her Master’s program. Mom claimed at the time that she was not interested in marriage, but in pursuing her career and education. But not two weeks after she arrived in Minot in July of 1959, she heard some “big buzz” about a male nurse that was also due to arrive. One look at the tall, dark, handsome man in uniform and Mom went weak in the knees – her words, not ours. Dad popped the question while they hung Halloween decorations in 1959, and they married the following February. Four months later, Mom found she was pregnant. She cried the day she was forced to resign her commission. Twins, Joseph and Jody, were born in February of 1961. Surprise! They really didn’t know about the twins. Dad said, “Two down and 10 to go!” Mom took that as a joke, but the twins were followed shortly thereafter by Kathleen, Mary Theresa and Stephen Dale Witmer. Mary Theresa died when she was only two. Her short life was spent in the hospital where she was looked after, having been born with spina bifida and encephalitis – she is our angel. The family moved approximately every two years, as Dad was reassigned from Minot AFB to Fairchild AFB in Spokane, WA; Westover AFB, MA; Lajes AFB Azores, Portugal; Dyess AFB in Abilene, TX; Chanute AFB in Rantoul, IL; and finally Incirlik AFB in Adana, Turkey where he died while on active duty in December of 1976. At this time, our mother was the school nurse and health teacher. During these moves, Mom managed everything, including 4 children, and finished her Master’s in Public Health at the University of Illinois. After our dad, Joe's death, the family returned to the States, left military life and built a new life among family in Boise, ID. It was to Idaho that the Witmer family would come over the years to reconnect and play in the mountains near Grandjean and Warm Lake. What memories! Mom returned stateside as a single mother with 4 teenagers. She never wavered. She was unstoppable, attending all our basketball, volleyball and softball games and track meets and seeing us all through graduation at Bishop Kelly High School. She was the loudest voice in the bleachers and we wouldn’t have it any other way. She never re-married but devoted herself to us and to continuing her career. She landed a teaching job with the Boise School District, teaching Vocation Health Occupations to area high-schoolers from 1979 - 1985. She was still in touch with some of her former students until she died. She earned her Doctorate in Education from the University of Idaho in 1986. It was also, during the period that we were all away at school, that our cousin, Stu Bixby, came to live with her. Stu made sure that Mom had a partner in crime on Friday nights when it was “her night to howl,” as long as the howling began after Entertainment Tonight... We will be forever grateful for Stu’s love of our mother. After she received her Doctorate, Mom went in search of a job in higher education. She became a “Cornhusker” after accepting a position with the Nebraska State Division of Vocational Education for Health Occupations and worked from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. She grew and strengthened the program, and during that time completed and published a book in 1990: The Geriatric Nursing Assistant. In March of 1991, Mom decided to move back to Idaho to be near family. She applied for and was offered the position in the Idaho State Department of Education as Supervisor for Health Occupations Education (HOE) for vocational programs throughout the State of Idaho. Under her tenure with the State, programs increased by nearly 700%. During her 6 years with the State, she was involved in the development of more than 30 health occupations curricula – a number of those courses are currently available to students online today. Mom planned the State’s summer conference, worked on various committees and worked closely with the State Board of Nursing. She also spent 7 years, beginning in 1992, facilitating the BSU Outreach Division Instructor Development Course that taught students how to teach. In 1996, she left the Division, retiring to start her own consulting business. The remainder of Mom’s career included a position on the Board of Directors for Professional-Technical Education Foundation, raising money to offer scholarships to students and teachers to work on their skills and to guide the state legislature in their appropriations by educating them on the needs around the state. Mom’s contributions also included charitable works. She and friend, Margo Henning, of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and FreeMed Program successfully wrote grant proposals to maintain these needed programs. Mom’s final contribution was the establishment and coordination of the St. John’s Parish Nursing program at St. John’s Cathedral. She ran the program for several years before handing it over to new blood at the age of 85. During those years she organized health fairs, foot care clinics and regular blood pressure checks for the parishioners of St. John’s. She continued to make home visits and deliver communion as a Eucharistic Minister for St. John’s almost until the day she died. In the last few months of her life, she was the grateful recipient of communion brought to her by the devoted Eucharistic Ministers at St. John’s. Dorothy is survived by her 4 children: Jody (Larry and Geoff), Joe (Renee), Kathy (Corine) and Steve (Laurie); favorite nephews Stu Bixby (Ann) and Tony Abbott (Delores); 11 grandchildren: Abby, Charley, Hailey, Aryn, Nicholas, Lyndsey, Robby and Clara, Christopher, Finley and Mathew; and 2 great-grandchildren: Ben and Carter. She would want us to impart her love and gratitude to all her extended family and friends in Seattle, Boise, Connecticut and elsewhere (there are too many to list) and to all her nursing and teaching family in Boise, as well as her family in faith at St. John’s. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you please donate to the scholarship fund established in Dorothy’s name by the Idaho Health Care Association: IHCA Foundation - Dorothy Witmer Scholarship, 1524 W. Cayuse Creek Drive, Meridian, ID 83646. *See "Service Information" tab for service details.