Shelter Island Reporter obituary: Dorothy Zabriskie

Dorothy Zabriskie died in April in Evanston, Illinois in the loving comfort of her family.

She was born in 1924 in Nahma, Michigan, the third of eight siblings. Graduating from Nahma High School in 1943, she went on to pursue her nurse’s training at the Mayo Clinic during World War II. As a nurse, Dorothy worked in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Prescott, Arizona and volunteered as a hospice nurse on Shelter Island.

She moved to Arizona in the late 1940s to bring her father, a World War I veteran, to Whipple Veterans Hospital. There she met and married architect Tom Zabriskie, with whom she raised three daughters and helped run their land development, Yakashba Estates in Prescott.

Dorothy and Tom moved to Shelter Island in 1983, where she worked as treasurer of the Shelter Island Friends of Music for many years. She loved to cook and was known to show up with hot scones on people’s birthdays, her family said. Playing Mah-jongg with her friends filled many Shelter Island afternoons.

Dorothy spent most of her life helping others and was constantly administering acts of kindness, her family remembered. She was incredibly proud of all her children and grandchildren and regaled people with stories of them.

Dorothy was predeceased by Tom in 1985 and her son Kenneth Hamilton in 2016.

Survivors include two sisters: Charlene Groll and Jeanette Oman; three daughters: Dorie Zabriskie of Ventura, California; Vinette Zabriskie of Kirkland, Washington; Nan Zabriskie of Evanston and son-in-law Lawrie Bloom of Evanston; and 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

A private ceremony will be held in Evanston. Donations may be made to the Shelter Island Friends of Music, P.O. Box 193, Shelter Island, NY 11964.