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Possessed with a personality, character, and inner strength as fierce as her red hair, Dorothy Ellen Morrissey Szekely Holt lived life on her own terms. Determined to blow past any goal post set for her, she surpassed everyone’s expectations of who she should be time and again.

She went by many names and wore many hats. Dot, Dots, Dotsy Motsy, Dottie, Dottie Karate, Red Dot, Mama Dot, Red, Grandma Dot, D, and Gigi. She was a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a high school drop-out, a wife, mother, a volunteer, a community worker, a GED candidate, a college student, a graduate student (twice), a professor, a business school administrator, a widow, a crime victim’s advocate, a teacher, a grandmother, a bride (again), a cancer patient, a fighter, a warrior, and an inspiration to everyone whose path she crossed.

Born in 1948, the second of four children to William Patrick Morrissey of Cobh, Ireland and Mary Agnes Morrissey (née Dillon) of the Bronx, NY, Dorothy enjoyed a childhood filled with the love of her devoted parents, and the simple pleasures of bike rides, summer swims in the Long Island Sound, family gatherings and making the best out of the little they had. At the age of 14 her world changed with the tragic death of her mother, beginning what would be a lifetime of challenges that Dorothy would overcome – sometimes with a quiet resolve, but more often with bold tenacity most often reserved for fictional characters.

Struggling to help raise her two younger brothers, maintain a household and finish her education, something had to give. Dorothy left school without a high school diploma and dedicated her efforts to her family. She cooked, cleaned, got a job and paid rent to her father to help make ends meet. Along the way she fell for a handsome Air Force veteran, James Z. Szekely, Jr., who she married in 1970 and with whom she raised two children, James and Denice.

Deciding that she could not teach her children the importance of education if she hadn’t herself finished high school, Dorothy earned her GED as a working mother. She then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from The Audrey Cohen College (now Metropolitan College of New York) and master’s degrees from Fordham University and from the City College of New York, earning a perfect 4.0 GPA each time. Dorothy worked at a community service organization, as a graduate business school administrator for both Fordham University and Seton Hall University, and as a crime victim’s advocate.

In 1998, after 28 years of marriage, another tragedy befell Dorothy when her beloved husband Jim was lost at sea while fishing off the coast of Montauk. With her family rallying behind her, Dorothy weathered this unimaginable storm of grief, rising from the ashes to reinvent herself yet again. In 2002 she became a New York City Teaching Fellow and taught third grade at P.S. 85 in the Bronx, eventually becoming the Testing Coordinator and Data Specialist until her retirement in 2013.

Proving that online dating can be a success at any age, Dorothy met Bob in 2004 and they dated long distance until he proposed in 2010. In 2013, weeks after retiring, she married her sailor, U.S. Navy veteran and retired schoolteacher Robert Warner Holt of West Tisbury, MA and moved from her native Bronx to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, where she embraced life as an islander.

One month shy of their one-year anniversary, Dorothy was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer in 2014. Determined to beat the odds, Dorothy began to once again “kick ass and take names.” She endured surgery and multiple rounds of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, holistic health practices, a clinical trial and anything she could find to fight with, always guided by her mantra “Don’t give up. Don’t give in.”

Through it all she continued to live life to the fullest, whether it was in her garden, in a museum, a favorite restaurant, a vacation, a family wedding or a grandchild’s birthday. She brought joy and a ferocious love wherever she went. More than just a survivor and a fighter, Dorothy was the best friend, the loudest cheerleader, the comforting shoulder to cry on, the original life coach, the life of the party, and the last person on the dance floor.

Dorothy is survived by her adoring husband Bob; her children Denice and Jim and their partners, Steve and Christina; her stepchildren Ronald and his wife Louise, Rob and his wife Monica, and Briana; by her grandchildren, Myles, James, Theodore (TJ), Ryan, and Benjamin; by her siblings, Dianne, William, and Michael; her sisters-in-law Carol, Christine, and Edel; her brother-in-law Ed; and by innumerable nieces, nephews, friends, and colleagues, whose lives are all the better for her having played a part.

A wake is scheduled for Thursday May 6, 2021 from 2pm to 6pm at Schuyler Hill Funeral Home,
3535 East Tremont Avenue Bronx, NY 10465. The funeral mass will be Friday May 7, 2021 at 10am at St. Frances de Chantal Church 190 Hollywood Ave, Bronx, NY 10465.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Angel Flight Northeast, in gratitude for their assistance in helping Dorothy travel to Boston for her many medical appointments and treatments:

https://host.nxt.blackbaud.com/donor-form/?svcid=renxt&formId=ecb74152-86a3-4823-aecb-f7c69d712775&envid=p-u6kC4rGBgEy5DAsRYNQqHg

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