Dorothy A. Wilson

Dorothy Ann (Simpson) Wilson of Marblehead (formerly of Brookline), died December 18 at her home. Born in 1916 in Tacoma, Washington, she was the oldest daughter, with two sisters and three brothers, of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Philip Simpson.

She graduated from the College of Puget Sound with a B.A. in 1937. After a radio stint in Tacoma, she moved to Fairbanks to broadcast a radio show named “Tundra Topics” at KFAR-660, the first commercial radio station in the Alaskan Territory. When World War II came to the Aleutian Islands, she returned to Seattle to work in a shipyard, and later worked in New York as a copy editor at Woman's Day magazine. In 1947, she married John J. Wilson and moved to Boston.

She served as Trustee of the Children’s Museum of Boston, Overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and of the Museum of Fine Arts, Board member of the Ellis Memorial Settlement House and was active in The Ladies’ Board of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. She enjoyed gardening in Marblehead and at her winter home in Barbados. With her husband, past Commodore of the Eastern Yacht Club of Marblehead, she was active in sailing.

After John’s death in 1985, she maintained their well-known boat, Holger Danske, and expanded their endowment of a Chair in the First Violins of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to “In Perpetuity”. Living by the philosophy of “interested is interesting”, she gained a wide group of loving and devoted friends from all walks of life. In her later years, she traveled extensively, alone, or with family or friends, through Russia, China, Egypt, Norway, Indonesia, Nepal, and India, reveling in this last when “taking an elephant to the airport” en route home. Her favorite poems were Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride”, Patterson’s “Clancy, of the Overflow”, and Kipling’s “Mandalay”.

She leaves her sister “Peaches”, of Santa Barbara, her brother Jim, of Spokane, daughters Anne Wilson and Sarah Wilson of San Francisco, son Richard Wilson of Marblehead, and step-daughter Eleanor Wilson Williams of Sarasota, as well as a large extended family of nieces, nephews, and grandchildren.

Visiting hours will be held at the Eustis and Cornell Funeral Home, 142 Elm Street, Marblehead on Tuesday December 21 from 4-8PM. Relatives and friends respectfully invited. A funeral mass will be celebrated at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, 85 Atlantic Avenue, Marblehead on Wednesday at 11:30AM. Interment will be in St. Joseph’s Cemetery, 990 La Grange Street, Boston on Thursday at 11AM. In lieu of flowers, donations will be welcomed to the Children’s Museum of Boston, Rosie's Place, or to Children’s Hospital Trust, earmarked for respiratory diseases.