Gloria D. Reiss

Gloria Dumas Reiss (“Tutu”) passed away peacefully on Saturday, October 25, 2025, at her home in Higganum, CT. Born 99 years ago in New Bedford, MA, she had lived in her Higganum home for more than 70 years – the home where she and her late husband Frank raised a beautiful family. She spent her final days in her sunny living room listening to the outpouring of love from the people she loved.

A voracious reader all of her life, she was an honor society member who graduated from New Bedford High School in 1944. She and Frank moved from New Bedford to Higganum and built their house in the early 50’s. In 1967, she was urged by people who saw her talents to work for the Midddlesex Country Soil Conservation Service, where she served with great efficiency, wisdom and kindness as an office manager until her retirement in 1988. She was actively involved in the Ladies Guild at St. Peter’s Church in Higganum, as well as the Haddam Senior Center. Although she was always one to avoid being the center of attention, she could not avoid being the center of the family. She was a loving, principled, devoted, selfless matriarch who had four children, nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. She would be showered with affection from this extended gang and their friends every year at the family’s favorite holiday – Soup Day!

She was predeceased by her husband of over 55 years, Frank Reiss, Jr. and her parents, Eva and Alexander Dumas. She is survived by her four children: Dorothy Hunter and her husband, Walter, Frank Reiss III and his wife Diana, Kristine Schiavi and her husband Victor and David Reiss and his partner Jeanette Wimmer; nine grandchildren: Heather Rooney and her husband Matthew, Ashley Kenner and her husband Jesse, Erin Nowak and her husband Andrew, Kendall Swokla and her husband, Lee, Stephanie Shields and her husband, Christopher, Bethany Munsell and her husband Timothy, Brandon Miller and his wife Julie, Sonya Porter and her husband, Spencer, and Jacob Reiss. She is also survived by nine great-grandchildren: Clara, Alice, Liam, Rowan, Emmett, Felix, Ryder, Kiplyn and Sophia.

The family would like to thank the dedicated nurses and aides from Vitas Hospice Services for the care and compassion they showed Tutu in her final days.

Funeral services will be held Friday, November 7 at 11 a.m. at Saint Peter’s Church, 30 Saint Peter’s Lane, Higganum, CT. Friends may visit with the family from 10-11 a.m. at the Church before the services. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Acton Public Library in Old Saybrook or the Haddam Senior Center.