Lillian Victoria Brown Dodd, 97 QUINCY, Mass. -- Lillian Victoria Brown Dodd was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on Dec. 27, 1912. She was raised by her aunt and uncle, Bess and Timothy Williams, in Towaco, N.J., and spent many summers with her parents, Lovell and Katherine Brown, and four siblings at the family cottage on Chebeague Island, Maine, ultimately returning to Maine to live there for many years before moving to the Eventide Nursing Home in Quincy, Mass., where she died on March 26, 2010.
She was a graduate of the New Jersey State Teacher's College, class of 1933. In 1941, she joined the Baha'i Faith. Her commitment to the Baha'i beliefs of progressive revelation, racial and gender equality, and conflict resolution through consultation stayed constant throughout her life.
Ms. Dodd was a very generous person whose volunteer activities extended throughout her life. She worked at the Cook County Hospital during the time she lived in Winnetka, Ill. In St. Louis, Mo. she was very active in an early intervention program for inner city children called Kinder Cottage. More recently, she was actively involved in many programs in Portland. The Portland YWCA named her Volunteer of the Year in 1994, and the Portland Chapter of the American Red Cross honored her contributions with the first Henry Durant Award, presented to her on her 90th birthday. Mrs. Dodd was active in musical performances earlier in her life, singing with the Ann Arbor Chorus of Ann Arbor, Mich. and playing violin with the Ann Arbor Symphony. She was an outstanding storyteller, a skill she often used in her volunteer activities and with her friends and family. Her love for music and drama continued throughout her life as she enjoyed plays, concerts, and contributed regularly to Maine Public Television.
While in Ann Arbor, she was a senior research interviewer for the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan. Her interest in both politics and religion served her in this work. She taught first grade in Geneva, N.Y. She loved her time teaching as it enabled her considerable skills as an educator, musician, artist, and a storyteller to be integrated into each day.
She will be remembered for her courage, unique personality, elegance, physical beauty, ineffable charm, social grace, intelligence, curiosity, perceptivity, wit, and wonderful sense of humor with its ironic irreverence for many things, and profound respect for others.
Mrs. Dodd leaves her three children, Timothy Keller, M.D. of Seattle, Wash., Erika Keller Rogoff, Ph.D. of Waban, Mass., Jon Keller, M.D. of Milton, Mass.; sisters Vera Brown Young and Kathleen Brown Ehrhardt; nine grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband, David L. Dodd, former Professor of Finance at the Columbia University School of Business.
She will be interred at the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston on March 27, 2010, in accordance with Baha'i traditions, at a private family ceremony.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to:
The Eventide Nursing Home
215 Adams Street
Quincy, MA 02169