Dr. Dorothy Freedman Stone
Dr. Dorothy Freedman Stone of Brentwood, Tennessee, formerly of Southampton, died on April 6 at the Heritage in Brentwood nursing home. She was 91.
Born May 13, 1920, in Manhattan, she was the daughter of Alan and Marie Freedman. An accomplished singer and pianist, Dr. Stone abandoned the opportunity for a Hollywood career choosing instead to pursue her passion for science. She obtained a bachelor of science degree in biology and a master’s degree in chemistry from Adelphi University, and a doctorate in education from the Teachers College at Columbia University, where she was inducted into Kappa Delta Pi, the international honor society for those in education.
Dr. Stone worked for Hazeltine Laboratories during World War II, where, rumor has it, she was part of a team that developed, but did not think to commercialize, Silly Putty as a by-product of their research. Following the war, she returned to the classroom, this time as a dedicated high school biology and chemistry teacher at private schools on Long Island and in New York City.
Seeking new challenges, she returned to school and obtained a nursing degree from Cornell University School of Nursing, which she immediately put to use as a registered nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at Cornell Medical Center. Among her other career accomplishments, she was a certified cyto-technologist, participated in numerous research projects related to maternal and child health and co-authored a number of research papers.
Growing up the sister to three brothers taught her to face life head-on. She became a licensed pilot in 1940 and loved fishing, boating and gardening. Never forgetting her early talents, she was also a lifelong patron of the opera, theater, music and the arts. A longtime resident of Manhattan and Southampton, she moved to Brentwood in 2005 and was one of the first residents of the Heritage at Brentwood retirement community, where she made many new friends who became enamored with her “feistiness.”
Dr. Stone is survived by her brothers and sisters-in-law, Buck and Pat Freedman of Atlanta, and Mick and Allene Freedman of Los Angeles; her son and daughter-in-law Bob and Ariel Stone of Brentwood; her grandchildren Jeremy Stone of Tennessee, Jessica Stone Woods of South Carolina, Shannon Stone Glover of Tennessee and Julian Agnew of Georgia. She was the adoring great-grandmother of five, aunt to 10 nieces and nephews, great-aunt to 15 and great-great-aunt to 11.
A memorial service will be held at Congregation Micah in Brentwood on Thursday, April 12, at 2 p.m., followed by a celebration of her life at her son’s home in Brentwood. In accordance with her wishes, she will be interred at sea so she can return to the environment she so loved. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to either the Adelphi College Alumnae Association or the Humane Society of the United States.
on Apr 9, 2012