Dorothy Jean Rounds, 90, passed away on Friday, May 19, 2017 at Glen Rose Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She was born on 22 June 1926 in Brooklyn, New York; the daughter of Frederick Haerer and Florence Jackson. Dorothy graduated from Far Rockaway High School, Long Island NY in 1944, and from Schauffler College of Religious Education, in Cleveland Ohio in 1949. She was the first member of her family to attend and graduate from college. After college, she joined the First Congregational Church, Stoneham Massachusetts, as Religious Education Director.
It was here she met her husband, William (Bill) Arthur Rounds. They were married on 17 June 1950, in Russell Sage Memorial Presbyterian Church, Far Rockaway and later lived in Andover, Massachusetts. Dorothy and Bill were devoted to each other for nearly 60 years until Bills’ death in 2010. In 1958, while serving as a social worker with the Family Service Association, Lawrence, Massachusetts, Dorothy received a two-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health and completed her Master’s Degree in Psychiatric Social Work at Simons College in Boston, Massachusetts. Later, she was selected to pursue advanced doctoral level psychiatric studies as a resident in the Harvard/McLean Psychiatry and Neuroscience Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dorothy put her career on hold with the arrival of a son Lincoln in 1958 and daughter Jane in 1959.
Dorothy and Bill moved to the Princeton NJ area in the early 1960s where Bill was offered a position at Princeton University’s Plasma Physics Laboratory Research Institute. After spending 5 years at home with her two young children, Lincoln and Jane, Dorothy returned to work as a psycho-social caseworker and had a distinguished career which culminated as Executive Director of the Mercer County Community Guidance Center in Princeton, NJ. Dorothy and Bill enjoyed socializing with family at the Rounds farm on Moose Pond, Maine, and summered at the ocean at Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. Dorothy always enjoyed participating in a great debate, especially when politics were involved.
Following retirement, Dorothy and Bill moved to Texas in 1987 to be a part of the lives of their grandchildren Mathew and Melissa Edwards. Dorothy and Bill could frequently be found volunteering at their schools in Granbury Texas.
Survivors include her son, Lincoln C Rounds and wife Heidi Schoenfeld of Skillman, NJ (granddaughters Hyla and Phoebe Rounds), her daughter Jane Edwards of Fort Worth Texas (grandson Mathew Edwards and wife Tiffany Edwards of Irving Texas; great grandson Kenshin Edwards; granddaughter Melissa Oxford and husband James Oxford of Odenton Maryland; great grandson Michael Oxford), a brother Deane N. Haerer (Polly Haerer) of Trophy Club Texas, and many nieces and nephews.
She was predeceased by her parents Frederick and Florence Haerer, her husband William Rounds, and her siblings Florence Haerer, Shirley Kossman, Joan Rivers, and Frederick Haerer.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Diabetes Association. A memorial service will be held for family members at a future date in Bridgton Maine.
Arrangements are by the Wiley Funeral Home in Granbury Texas.
