Dottie Dahl
Her sweetness lives on…
Obituary
Dorothy “Dottie” Rivers Dahl, age 96, longtime resident of the Princeton area, passed away peacefully on September 8th of this year. Dottie was born in New Rochelle, New York on November 7, 1927 to the late Elodie Nichols and Anthony J. Rivers. She attended Green Mountain College, a women’s college in Vermont, before working as a secretary in New York City. It was there, at an advertising agency, that she met Richard “Dick” Dahl. They dated, dancing and singing along to the big band music of the era and signing letters to each other as “Sam” (for Sam Spade, the fictional detective of ‘Maltese Falcon’ fame) and Betty (for Betty Grable, a famous actress of the time known for her legs). Dick and Dottie were married on November 18, 1961 at the Little Church Around the Corner in Manhattan.
Dick and Dottie moved to Princeton, New Jersey in 1961 and then to West Windsor in 1967, settling into a home on Grovers Mill Pond where they raised four boys - Chris, Eric, Dicky and Michael - two cats, Myrhia and Blackie, and a dog named Barney. Dottie worked double duty as chief homemaker and secretary for Dick’s insurance business, earning high marks for her nearly inexhaustible patience under fire. She was not a great cook, relying to an unfortunate extent on the convenience of frozen vegetables and her boys’ fondness for Steak-umm sandwiches. But she more than made up for this shortcoming with her famously sweet temperament, her eager interest in the welfare of those around her, her willingness to be spooked or amused, and her ready encouragement of all her sons’ dreams, speculative as they sometimes were. She was an avid walker and player of tennis, liked to play cards, and had a lifelong love of swimming, especially in the clear waters of Lake George in Upstate New York, where the family enjoyed camping vacations every summer. She had a smooth, elegant stroke and barely rippled the water when she dove, unlike Dick, who always bent his knees.
Dottie volunteered for many years at Princeton Hospital. She developed an interest in gardening in her later years, surrounding the family’s pool with beautiful flower-filled containers, and was known to chase the geese who pooped in her backyard by barking like a dog and waving her arms wildly in the air. She and Dick traveled extensively after their boys left home, taking trips to Scandinavia, China, Northern Europe, Spain, Mexico and Alaska. In 2018, she and Dick moved out of their home and into Stonebridge at Montgomery, a senior living community in Skillman, New Jersey. Dottie is preceded in death by two brothers, Guy and Bobby, and a sister, Elodie. She is survived by Dick Dahl, her husband of 63 years; her four sons; three daughters-in-law, Patty, Shannon and Melissa; and five grandchildren, Connor, Andrew, Brooks, Coleman and Frankie. Her family will gather for a celebration of her life and to spread her ashes over a place that was dear to her heart. Memories of her sweetness will be cherished for a long time to come.
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