Gabriella "Gay" Haws Woese

Gay was born in Stamford, Connecticut on February 18, 1931, to Henry Ernst Haws and Gabriella Spooner Dunn. She grew up in neighboring Greenwich where she spent many happy hours sailing on Long Island Sound. She attended Greenwich Country Day School, Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut, and Smith College where she received a degree in History. While at Smith, she met her future husband Carl Richard Woese, who was attending Amherst College. They married in 1953 and moved to New Haven, Connecticut so that her husband could attend Yale. While there, Gay worked on the editorial board of the Yale newspaper.

After her husband’s matriculation, they moved to Schenectady, New York where they started a family by adopting two children two years apart. In 1964 Gay and her family moved to Urbana, Illinois as Carl accepted a professorship at the University of Illinois. For 49 years Gay raised a family and maintained a household in Urbana. During these years Gay also maintained a summer home in Chilmark, Massachusetts.

Her interests were varied and included participation and memberships in various environmental and wildlife conservation organizations in both Illinois and Massachusetts. She was an avid birder and reader and was very fond of jigsaw and crossword puzzles. Over the years she often exercised her editorial skills by assisting her husband with his papers and publications.

When her husband died in 2012, she moved to Atlanta to be near her two children who both reside there. She was preceded in death by her siblings, a brother Robert Haws of Hawaii and a sister Jean Brown of Princeton, New Jersey.

She will be interred next to her husband at Abel’s Hill Cemetery in Chilmark, Massachusetts. A family service will be held graveside at a time yet to be determined. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Arrangements are being made by HM Patterson & Son- Oglethorpe Hill 4550 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta, GA, 30319 (404-261-3510).

She is survived by a daughter, Gabriella, and a son, Robert both of Atlanta, niece Dr. Deborah Carver of New York City, nieces Robin Kaimikaua and Cynthia Haws both of Hawaii, namesake niece Gay Miller of New York City, and a nephew Peter Miller of California.

The family would like to thank all of Gay’s caregivers over the years which includes Menders by Lenbrook, the team at Inspired Home Care, and the entire Lenbrook healthcare staff.