Obituary for Dorothy Schumacher | Strong-Hancock Funeral Home
- Date Of Birth: June 28, 1923
- Date Of Death: June 15, 2011
- State: Maine
Dorothy E. (Dean) Schumacher, 87, of Newcastle, died peacefully on June 15 at her home. She was born June 28, 1923 in Hartford, Conn., the daughter of Douglas and Edith (Freeland) Dean. Her mother died unexpectedly when Dorothy was four and her sister, two. Her father’s sister and husband, Silas Foss, took the girls in while her bereaved father was regaining his equilibrium. Dorothy and her sister attended school in Greenwich, Conn. until their Uncle Silas, an engineer, moved the family to Long Island, NY where he worked engineering the Whitestone Bridge. Dorothy attended local schools and graduated from Sewanhaca High School in Floral Park, NY as a member of the National Honor Society. Her true love was art but she was reluctant to ask her family to allow her to attend Pratt Institute because of the expense, so she trained as a nurse at Roosevelt Hospital in NYC, which is still at 57th and 58th Street west of Columbus Circle. Meanwhile, her father and stepmother, Ermina Dean, a nurse herself, moved to Nobleboro. In 1944 Dorothy came to Maine to be with them and nursed at Miles Memorial Hospital where she met her future husband, Jack Schumacher. They were married Feb. 20, 1945, and moved to Hartford, Conn. In 1953 they moved back to Maine where they built a home in Newcastle. Discovering they were unable to have children, they adopted, first, a daughter, Gloria Elizabeth, at 12 days old; four years later a son, John Michael at nine days old; and, finally, daughter, Jennie Margaret at 6 days old-each from Saint Andres’s Home in Biddeford. Dorothy’s heart was full. She worked for the first year of motherhood then chose to be a full-time wife and mother. She returned to her lifelong love of art. She had studied with a family friend in Greenwich, Ward Brackett, a famous illustrator at the time. Later, in the early 60s she studied at UMO with Vincent Hartgen, the head of the Art Department. When her husband, an English professor at UMO, transferred to the new Augusta campus in 1968, she studied with Professors Philip Paratore and Jack Carleton at UMA among others, for two years. She had been encouraged by the artist Gene Klebe to become an exhibitor at the Pemaquid Art Gallery where she soon became one of the favorites among many very fine artists exhibiting. Sometime later, in the late 70s or early 80s her husband renovated a portion of the building where Fernald’s Country Store is now located and built her a small shop “The Blue Heron” where she sold her paintings and small crafts and other gifts. She continued exhibiting at Pemaquid until her illness several years ago. Dorothy was predeceased by her sister, Alice; and nephew, Douglas Merz. She is survived by her husband of 66 years, Jack; daughter, Beth of Owls Head; son, John who was her loving caregiver in the latter part of her illness together with her husband; and daughter, Jennie Hoffman and husband, Mark; granddaughter, Sophia Schumacher; grandson, Ryan Hoffman, all of Newcastle; niece, Nancy Silvestri of New York; and brother-in-law, John Merz of New Jersey.