Dorothy Deal Rogers

Dorothy Deal Rogers

Iowa City

Dorothy Deal Rogers passed away peacefully on March 28, 2023, this spring at the Oaknoll Retirement Community in Iowa City.

Born in Statesville, N.C., on May 22, 1926, to Ralph McGill Deal and Florence Miller Deal, she was spent most of her childhood in Charlotte. She attended the Charlotte Public Schools, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for a Bachelors of Arts and Columbia University in New York City for her master’s degree in 1948. She was the eldest of three, a brother Ralph and the youngest, a sister, Rebecca. They lost their father at a very young age. Both of these siblings passed away in recent years.

She is survived by four of her five children, Scott, Douglas, R. Dwight and David (Jessie passed away this past summer); and two stepchildren, Jane Gray and Richard Rogers. She had 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, the last of which Dorothy learned was born just days before she passed away.

Though Dorothy loved Iowa yet never lost her Southern accent, charm and love of grits, okra and collard greens. She continued to travel during her life visiting Canada, England, France, Kenya, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Colombia and Madagascar.

In 1970 Dorothy married Ed Rogers of Mount Vernon Iowa, a long-time family friend. In the many years they had together (Ed passed away in 2009) they camped, canoed and participated in many trips with the Elderhostels to Alaska, Native American reservations, Hawaii and elsewhere. They spent many a winter break in Anguilla in the Caribbean during the long Iowa winters which they both loved.

In 1973 Dorothy began work at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics as a patient representative. She retired as director of that program in 1986 to accompany Ed who had just retired himself from Cornell College in Mount Vernon.

Dorothy and Ed moved from Mount Vernon to the Oaknoll Retirement Community in Iowa City in 1994 where she participated in many of the community´s activities including their choir.

Dorothy’s interests included the Quaker Friends for their views on peace and non-violence, openness and integrity of government, environmental protection and social justice. She was an active participant both financially and on committees in several organizations representing these interests. She served on the Johnson County Foster Care Review Board, was a volunteer at the University of Iowa Medical school playing out symptoms of various illnesses for the third year medical students. She was an avid painter with watercolors.

Dorothy was a wise, friendly open and intellectually aware person who always made people feel welcome in her presence. She will be missed by all of us here and missed dearly by her family.

As per Dorothy’s request, her remains will be buried in her family´s plot in Charlotte, N.C. alongside her mother and father. The family will have a quiet ceremony in her honor in Pawley’s Island, S.C., at a later time which was one of Dorothy’s favorite vacation spots.

A memorial will be held in celebration of Dorothy at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 30, at the Oaknoll Retirement residence in the Spring addition 735 George Street. In lieu of flowers memorial donations can be made in her memory to either, Southern Poverty Law Center, Iowa City Shelter House or Iowa City Meeting House. To share a condolence with her family, please visit Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service website at www.gayandciha.com.