Hanover, N.H. —
Following high school, Dorothy attended Oberlin College where she majored in practical art and studied the harp, as she had done for several years. At the time of her graduation from Oberlin in 1946, Dorothy’s oldest brother, Willy, an electronics engineer who had worked on the Manhattan Project and helped to found the newly-organized Federation of American Scientists (FAS), said to Dorothy, “If you learn to type, I can use you in Washington, [DC],” where the Federation was headquartered. Thus began a decade-long association with the FAS during which Dorothy eventually became the administrative secretary and was for many years the only full-time, paid employee of that organization.
Dorothy met her future husband, Theodore Kent Osgood, in Washington when Tedd was encouraged by a mutual friend to volunteer at the FAS office. They were married in 1957, at which time Tedd was a Foreign Service Officer working in the Department of State. Shortly after the birth of their first child, Andrea, they moved to Germany where Tedd was assigned to the Consulate General in Duesseldorf. It was there that Dorothy took up the (then) exacting duties of a Foreign Service wife, a role at which she quickly excelled, as well as serving as the secretary of the local American Women’s Club. From Duesseldorf the young couple moved on to the Consulate General in Paramaribo, Suriname, stopping in the US only long enough to have a second child, Tristan.
Their tour of duty in South America was cut short when Tris contracted encephalitis at the age of 18 months. This resulted in considerable permanent physical and neurological damage. Dorothy worked tirelessly to ensure that he had as normal a life as possible, insisting that he be “mainstreamed” before the concept existed, in a time when such people were routinely institutionalized. Thanks largely to her efforts, Tris was eventually able to graduate from public schools and find competitive employment.
After Dorothy and her family returned from Suriname, they spent the next three years in the Nation’s Capital, during which a third child, Ethan, was born. It was also during this period that Tedd forsook the Foreign Service for Harvard’s Development Advisory Service (DAS). At that time, the DAS was under the direction of Lester Gordon, an Oberlin classmate of Dorothy’s who, many years earlier, had promised her a ride in his airplane. This promise had never been fulfilled. However, when Tedd took an assignment with the DAS in Malaysia, Lester was finally able to arrange a flight for Dorothy — half way around the world. In the three years the family lived in Kuala Lumpur, Dorothy greatly enjoyed the cultural richness and recreational opportunities of the Far East, marveling at Asian art and culture and snorkeling in the warm waters of the South China Sea.
Returning to the US, Dorothy lived with her family in Chevy Chase, Md., and then Concord, Mass., and enjoyed a second 3-year sojourn in Malaysia before coming to Kendal at Hanover with her husband in 2001. At Kendal, she immediately joined the folk dancers, thus continuing an activity she had treasured since her active involvement with the Washington Folk Dance Group many years previously. She sang with the Kendal Chorale through their most recent winter concert. She also enjoyed skiing and hiking in the Hanover area and at the family’s summer home on Silver Lake in Madison, N.H. Environmental concerns were a high priority with Dorothy and at Kendal she was actively involved with the community’s recycling efforts.
Dorothy’s life revolved around her family and their friends. She derived her greatest satisfaction from acting in the service of others. She also loved many kinds of music, and enjoyed singing folk songs, sometimes accompanying herself on the guitar.
For the last four years she had been living in the Whittier Unit of Kendal’s Health Center. In March she suffered a bout of pneumonia, followed by medical complications from which she could not recover. Dorothy died peacefully in her sleep early on Wednesday, April 5.
Dorothy was predeceased by her 5 brothers, including two who were killed in Europe during WWII, painful losses that remained with her always. She is survived by Tedd, her husband of 60 years; her three children, Andrea and her husband Geoffrey Rogers of Shutesbury, Mass., Tristan of Great Barrington, Mass., and Ethan of Prescott, Ariz.; and four grandchildren, Angus and his wife Sara Rogers of Maine, Fiona Rogers of Mass., and Isla and Laurel Osgood of Ariz..
A memorial service will be held in the Gathering Room at Kendal at Hanover in Hanover, N.H., at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 29, 2017. Gifts in her memory may be made to the Development Office at Oberlin College, 50 W. Loraine St., Oberlin, OH 44074, or to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, PO Box 2108 White River Jct., VT 05001.