Obituary of Dorothy Nekervis

OBITUARY FOR DOROTHY NEKERVIS Dorothy Nekervis passed away on May 27, 2013 at The Village at Sydney Creek in San Luis Obispo, California after a long and productive life. She was born Dorothy Daley Sutcliffe, named for her mother, on July 24, 1922 at the California mining town of Copperopolis in the shadow of the Sierra. Her family soon moved to Joliet, Illinois where she started school, then back to California near Mt. Shasta in 1929, and to Jackson, Oregon near Crater Lake in 1933. There she graduated from Prospect School in 1940, taking a position at her school as clerk, tutor and substitute teacher for two years until winning a two-year scholarship to Maryl Hurst College near Portland. Returning again as a teacher at Prospect, she studied during summers at the Southern Oregon College of Education in Ashland until 1946 when she took a position at tiny Elk Creek school with only two other teachers. One, Lucille Neiter, became her lifelong friend and colleague with whom she shared a rustic cabin on the Rogue River and with whom she moved to the Los Angeles area a year later. At first working at the Bank of America, Dorothy completed her education degree at the University of Southern California and returned to teaching in the Hawthorne School District. Beginning with a post-war class of 54 first graders who were divided into two half-day classes, she taught in the district for three decades, including children with special needs such as the blind for whom she learned Braille. A seasonal home in Los Osos on the Central Coast led Dorothy and Lucy to Indian Hill in Avila Valley upon retirement in 1979, where Dorothy served as president of the San Luis Bay Mobile Estates Association. After Lucy's death in 1987, Dorothy moved to North Bend, Oregon where she married former Indian Hill neighbor Robert J. Nekervis in 1992. The couple lived seasonally in North Bend and Avila Valley until Robert's death in 2008. In 2010 Dorothy moved to The Villages in San Luis Obispo, first at Garden Creek and later at Sydney Creek. Dorothy was preceded in death by her brother, Herbert Sutcliffe (1924-2009), and her husband of 16 years, Robert Nekervis (1911-2008). She is survived by stepdaughter Robertine (Paul) Freshwater of Eagle Harbor, MI; nephew Patrick (Kathy) Sutcliffe of Davis, CA; nephew Dennis Sutcliffe of Lovettsville, VA; granddaughter Erin Nekervis of New York City; grandson Robert (Amber) Nekervis II of Columbus, OH; grandson Ross (Melissa) Freshwater of Guadalajara, Mexico; and four great-grandchildren. Arrangements are being handled by McDermott-Crockett & Associates Mortuary in Santa Barbara, California (www.mcdermottcrockett.com). Dorothy will rest in the Nekervis/Freshwater family plot in Eagle Harbor, Michigan on Lake Superior.