Dorothea Minis

Dorothea Herty Minis died at Heron Point in Chestertown, Maryland on August 31. She was 92. Dolly was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where her father was head of the Chemistry department at the University of North Carolina. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College in 1934 and received a Masters degree in Biology from Cornell University. She returned to Vassar briefly to teach biology. In 1939, she married H. Philip Minis and they moved to Princeton New Jersey, where they lived until 1992. From 1967 to 1994, Phil and Dolly spent summers at their house in Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard. Dolly was a research associate in the Biology Department at Princeton University from 1954 to 1965. She contributed to the early research on circadian rhythms or natural clocks. Dolly was a talented naturalist and keen birder. She went on birding expeditions in Latin America and Africa and was a frequent contributor to Bird News in the Vineyard Gazette. As her eyesight declined from cataracts, she developed an interest in bird songs. For many years, she recorded bird songs for the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology, contributing over one hundred recordings to the Library of Natural Sounds. Her recordings of chickadee songs on the Vineyard were unique. Dolly was also a dedicated volunteer for civic causes in communities where she lived. In Princeton, she was an active member of the League of Women Voters and a volunteer science reader for Recording for the Blind for twenty five years. She and Phil fought together for the preservation of open space in the Princeton area, including the creation of Turning Basin Park and Shablakunk Woods. In Chestertown, she volunteered at Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge, helping conduct wildlife surveys. Mrs. Minis is survived by her three children, Dorrie Ridgway and husband Ray of Tiburon, California, Susan Spector and husband Barry of Baltimore, Maryland and Hal Minis and wife Pat Hughes of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; six grandchildren and one great grand daughter. Donations may be made in her memory to the Nature Conservancy, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic – New Jersey Unit, or Friends of Eastern Neck, Inc.

Dorothea Minis

August 31, 2004