Dorothy F. (Feeney) Lynde

LYNDE, Dorothy Marie (Feeney), Age 81, died on December 18 from complications of Parkinson's Disease.

Dorothy was the daughter of Martin J Feeney and Dorothy M (Schmidt) Feeney.  She was born and grew up in Boston.  She graduated from Girls' Latin School, Newton College of the Sacred Heart (BA in History), and later in life, Boston State College (M Ed) and Boston University (MA in TESOL).

In her senior history seminar at Newton College, the professor urged the students to take the Foreign Service Exam as practice before taking the GRE if they were planning to go on to graduate school.  He said that none of the students would pass the exam.  But Dorothy did pass the exam and the interviews.  After completing training in Washington at the Foreign Service Institute, where she learned to speak Spanish, she served as a Foreign Service Officer in Honduras and Ecuador.  After three years of service, she decided that the life of a single woman in the Foreign Service was not the life she wanted.

She returned to Boston in the spring of 1970.  That summer, her cousin, George, urged her to go with him to the Cape where a group of young people rented a house.  After meeting the group, she joined the group for four summers.  It was there that she met her husband to be, David.  They married in 1973.

In the fall of 1970, Dorothy started teaching in the Boston School System.  She taught Spanish/English bilingual classes and English as a Second Language classes.  When their first child, Peter, was born in 1979, she stopped teaching for a while.

A few years after their second child, Kathryn, was born in 1981, she resumed her lifelong teaching career.  She first taught ESL to a group of foreign students' wives at a program at M.I.T.  Then she moved to a similar program at the Harvard University International Office.  As the children grew up, she took on heavier schedules.  For the remainder of her career, she taught ESL at the Harvard University Extension School English Language Institute and at the Boston University Center for English Language and Orientation Programs.  She received the Excellence in Teaching Award in the ELI program a number of times.

Always a teacher, she continued teaching in retirement.  She became a Gallery Instructor at the Museum of Fine Arts, giving tours to school groups.  She also volunteered at the Belmont Food Pantry.

Dorothy and David enjoyed movies, plays, and museums.  They traveled to a number of destinations, including Central America; Ireland, two times where she had relatives; a cruise to Bermuda; and two Enrichment Voyages, one to the Mediterranean Sea and the other to the Baltic Sea.

Dorothy leaves her husband David, her son Peter and his husband Im, her siblings Patricia Cully (Paul Gandillot), MaryBeth Ryan (James), John Feeney (Linda King), her brother-in-law Donald Lynde, and many cousins, nieces and nephews.  Her daughter Kathryn predeceased her.

The family would like to thank the staff at Rose Court at Linden Ponds Senior Living in Hingham for the excellent and compassionate care they gave Dorothy during her failing years.  They would also like to thank the staff of Croi Health (formerly known as Norwell VNA), who provided hospice care during her last four months.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Linden Ponds Student Scholarship Fund via check made payable to Linden Ponds and mailed to Philanthropy Department, 203 Linden Ponds Way, Hingham MA 02043-8700.  Please note on the check's memo line “In memory of Dorothy Lynde.”

A memorial service will be held at a later date.

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