Dorothy J. Siegel

Dorothy J Siegel a.k.a. Ma Gull, resident of Port Jefferson, NY for 47 years died peacefully at her home on September 1, 2014. She was 90 years old. She was predeceased by her husband Ronald W. Siegel who passed away on April 8, 1981. She was born Dorothy Josephine Hill on August 4, 1924 to Davis and Zou White Hill in Waco, Texas. Her early life was influenced broadly by her maternal grandparents with whom she lived in Temple, Texas until junior high. She then moved to Houston, Texas to live with her mother, aunt and uncle in West University Place; near Rice University where her uncle was the Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering.

During World War II, while studying at Rice University she would often attend USO bridge games for the soldiers. It was here that she met, dated and later married Dad when he pulled out a chair and offered her a seat at the bridge table. They were married on May 7, 1946 in Houston and honeymooned by traveling north to New York City where Dad lived.

They eventually settled at Camp Shanks, Orangeburg, NY a pre D-Day Army processing center and later, a POW camp. After the war, the camp’s barracks were converted into apartments for veterans. Ma took in ironing to help make ends meet while Dad attended Columbia University on the GI Bill. When Martha was born they moved to a large house in Old Tappan, N J. Here she and dad became involved with the community and provided a home, complete with back yard, woods, and a swamp. It was a kids’ paradise. Ma served as a Cub Scout den mother, Brownie and Girl Scout leader and became very involved in the Charles De Wolfe Elementary School PTA.

Her work with the PTA inspired her to become a teacher and she decided to go back to college and earn a teacher certification. She attended Paterson State Teacher’s College and after graduating she took a position in the elementary school in Alpine, NJ. Never one to stifle her intellectual instincts she decided that she really wanted to become a school librarian and to this end she attended night classes and summer school at Rutgers University where she earned a Masters Degree in Library Sciences (MSLS). An indication of her dedication to her studies is that her classes at Rutgers involved a 120 mile round trip after teaching all day. Upon completion of her MSLS and still living in NJ, she first took a position in the school district of Englewood Cliffs and later the school district of Mahwah.

In 1966,when our father accepted a position at Stony Brook University Ma found a position as school librarian in the Central Islip School District and she later transferred to the Commsewogue School District’s Clinton Avenue elementary school where she spent the remainder of career. The seemingly chaos of her desk caused many a principal to walk away muttering when after admonishing her for the mess she could blithely reach into a stack of papers, wiggle her fingers around and magically produce a requested document. In spite of being a superb school librarian she had an ambivalent relationship with public libraries. She lost borrowing privileges at the Port Jefferson Library and prevailed upon her son Paul to loan her his card. A year later he was being threatened with jail and hefty fines regarding the matter of overdue books. Ma’s response was,“I think they’re around here somewhere.” Ma retired from public education in the late 1980s, but she did not so much retire as begin a new life of action and fulfillment.

Ma was an early environmentalist with notable expertise in recycling and reuse. Growing up in the thirties, she always had a great sensitivity to issues of waste management and conservation of resources. Back in the fifties and sixties she was involved with community-wide Boy Scout paper drives, and always refused to take plastic, or even brown paper, shopping bags. In later life she was also famous for instituting strict household rules regarding the reuse of plastic cutlery, 33 years later there are still plastic forks in use from Paul and Suzanne’s wedding. She also accumulated a large collection of dryer lint for which the children could not determine a discernable use or purpose. We speculated that she was going to use the material for hamster bedding or stuffing pillows, the truth is that she was collecting it to use in the making of artisanal paper, a project that never got off the ground. But in her passion for collecting she assembled quite a stash. She also famously repurposed an old laundry bag into a serviceable pair of shorts that lasted a number of summers. In fairness, with the exception of headwear she was not well known for having a sense of style. She was anti-vogue before being anti-vogue was in vogue. Ma was also famous for greeting guests at the door and asking if they had any laundry that needed washing. We felt that doing the wash and hanging clothes out to dry was one of her ways of relaxing.

Ma’s love of gardening led to new paths and adventures. She became a master gardener through the Cornell Extension. While with Master Gardeners she cataloged and helped maintain their library of garden books. She was also a member of the Daylily Society and won several awards for her lilies at Daylily summer competitions. Her garden in Port Jefferson still overflows with daylilies. Her love of gardening took her to flower shows and conventions across the country. She traveled light, often times with a paper bag serving as her suitcase. One of the conundrums about Ma’s expertise as a gardener was that her outdoor garden would erupt in profusions of color and scent. House plants on the other hand were known to have lives that lasted mere days, with a plant lasting a couple of weeks being a record.

Ma always found joy in helping others and until she stopped driving she served the community as a volunteer for Meals on Wheels. She was known to return homes where she had delivered meals and offer additional help. If there was any life-long passion it was the playing of the game Bridge. Much to the consternation of her partners she was never shy about interpreting the rules in her own fashion. Her favorite response to a partner’s query about some suspect move was I don’t give a %#@$ what the rules say. Her gambits were often quite successful as the opposition would crumble in confusion or laughter. Ma could be very serious but she never took herself too seriously.

Scrabble was another passion. Ma and neighbor Naomi had a signal system worked out wherein if the light in Ma’s kitchen was on, it meant come on over, I learned some new words that I’m going to spring on ya. The clicking of tiles could occur at any hour on any day, but usually in darkest hours of night until the glow of the early dawn. Ma had lists of two letter words committed to memory. Words that if you asked her to use them in a sentence would elicit a response of …………..”it doesn’t matter, they are in the Scrabble Dictionary and legal in competition.” To that all we can say is eh oh ah ey ug li re. A gentleman that Ma met in New Orleans referred to her as a full contact scrabble player.

She was always a giver, for example, she would buy up everything that was left over at the end of garage sales and repair the toys, wash and iron the clothes, buy groceries and then put together Christmas packages for local families in need of a little cheer. It was not at all unusual for Ma’s children to hear stories from strangers, who upon learning that she was our mother, would tell us about her generosity, how she had offered a helping hand when it was needed, or how they were helped by the scholarships she gave to former Clinton Avenue students going to College. One time, there was a poker game being played in her dining room. One of the players walked by her study, where incidentally she working on her plan to complete every iteration of Free Cell, he glanced over and said……..that’s Dorothy Siegel, what’s she doing here? Her son replied, “it’s her house.” The gentleman was a therapist and he then said……….. “so many of his female patients talk about her and the help she has given them.” Ma didn’t seek recognition for her good works and in fact would be embarrassed by any attention being drawn to her charity. She did it because she felt it was the right thing to do.

We could go on and on as there are so many Ma Gull stories. She was generous to a fault, she was wildly eccentric, she was caring, and she was enigmatic, but above all she was genuine, sui generis as a dear friend said upon learning of her passing. At the end she was tired and passed peacefully at home. Who among us could ask for anything more? A fulfilling life, a life of service and giving, a life filled with friendship and to pass on in the comfort of her home. We, her children have always felt that if we could be a quarter of the person that our parents were, we would be successful. Ma gave so much, and while she now inhabits a plane beyond she will never be gone because she is in each of us and has touched all of us in some way.She set examples of generosity for all of us to follow. Bless you Ma and thank you for being you.

Love forever,

Dorothy J. Siegel, age 90, died peacefully at home on September 1st, 2014. A resident of Port Jefferson since 1967, Dorothy was a retired school librarian of the Comsewogue School District..

Beloved wife of the late Ronald W. Devoted mother of David Siegel (Suzanne), Paul Siegel (Suzanne), and Martha Siegel (Dennis Mynarcik). Loving grandmother of Rachel Martha Giustina (Giancarlo).

Visitation was on Friday September 5th from 2-4pm and 7-9pm. There was no visitation on Saturday. A Religious Service was officiated by Deacon Montford Naylor 10am Sunday September 7th, 2014 at OB Davis Funeral Home, with a graveside committal following at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Port Jefferson, New York.