Dorothy Work
In Loving Memory of Dorothy Work
The world lost a guiding star on Friday August 21st, 2020 with the passing of Dorothy Work. She was born Dorothy Szymanski on August 10th, 1929 was raised by Polish immigrants in Chicago. Dorothy moved to Albuquerque in 1942 where she graduated St. Mary’s in 1947. She grew up with hard-earned work ethic and sense of supreme tidiness inherited from helping her hotelier parents with making dozens of beds and cleaning rooms. She met Harry Work and they married in 1949 where they bought a home in the South Valley and raised 5 children, Harry, David, Dennis, Louise and Valerie. After her husband’s passing Dorothy took employment at the University of New Mexico. She possessed a fierce intellect, natural curiosity, was witty and opinionated. Raised as a strict Catholic, she became enamored of Hinduism later in life and went on a solo pilgrimage though India and Sri Lanka at the age of 68. She embodied the Hindu spirit of Daana, the virtue of charity, and spent her Saturdays’ delivering handmade bean burritos to the homeless around Albuquerque.
She opened her home to many friends and it would fill with the sound of Bhajans on Sundays. She was a loving mother and grandmother and doted generously upon her 7 grandchildren, and instilled in them a sense of intellectual rigor. She was a fiercely competitive Scrabble player with devastating mastery of three letter words. In her quitter moments, she was a skilled artist and would paint, draw, or pastel portraits and landscapes, she was also skilled in clay sculptures. She was a great advocate of fine culture; she loved Bach, Bartok and Tchaikovsky, afternoons spent in museums and money spent on travel, great food, and great gifts. She passed quietly in her sleep under the watchful care of her youngest daughter Valerie and her husband Ron who spent the last 6 years carefully tending to Dorothy’s needs in Cincinnati Ohio. Dorothy is survived by Harry, David, Dennis and Valerie, her grandchildren Melissa, Kristin, Zach, Jeremy, Elena, Nick, Evan and her 9 great grandchildren, Alejandro, Kyle, Adyn, Maggie, Audrey, Heidi, William and Emma. She will be missed, through her spirit lives on in generous acts.