Dorothy Lee Sawyer

Long-time Easton, MD, and Seaford, DE, resident Dorothy “Dottie” Lee Sawyer died on December 7, 2017. Dorothy, daughter of Aubrey McDonald Lee and Eugenia Harris Lee, was born November 27, 1931, in Laramie WY. She moved to Washington, DC, during her junior year of high school. On the day she headed east, she picked up a 5 lb granite rock from the Rocky Mountains and kept it for the entirety of her life, a simple reminder of her Wyoming birthplace. While completing an English degree at American University, Dottie married Thomas Knowlton Sawyer in 1952. She was the anchor for the nascent biologist who worked all day at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, then studied for a MSc. most of the night. In 1964, towing a brood of three young children, Dottie moved to Easton when Tom took a job at the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries’ Oxford Laboratory. While she never lost her affection for the Rockies, the Chesapeake Bay became a close second. She loved crabbing, watching Canada geese and canvasbacks, and catching rockfish and blues, but never learned to like an oyster. Dottie worked as a secretary at the Coca Cola Bottling Company, Oxford Lab, and Presbyterian Church of Easton. That church was an important part of her life. She sang in the Chancel Choir, was an Ordained Elder, and remained an active member for 40 years. When Tom retired, husband and wife formed Rescon Associates, Inc., a non-profit research environmental company. Together they worked and travelled until the point her health began to decline. In 2002, Tom and Dottie moved into Methodist Manor House in Seaford, DE. Dorothy Sawyer lived her life by a high moral code. She was the consummate supporter of her husband and his career, and a ceaseless role model to her children and grandchildren, most of whom followed a bumpy road into adulthood until, one by one, they started to become the kind of people she knew they could be. Friends and family remember the special moments-- dinners of steamed crabs, roast goose, or stuffed rockfish; her garden, judiciously nurtured through spring and summer; her love of family holidays and its traditions; and the joy she took watching the family she treasured from her seat in the choir – Tom usually asleep, oldest daughter, Pat, studiously following the sermon, son, Robert, always fidgeting in the pew, and the youngest, Barbara, quiet and precious. Dorothy Lee Sawyer is again looking over her loved ones, only now from a higher perch. Dorothy was preceded in death by her parents and husband of 62 years. She leaves behind her children, Patricia Crowder, Robert Sawyer, and Barbara Starkey; grandchildren Kelley Callaghan, Kendall Allen, Christen Sawyer, and Ethan Starkey; and great-granddaughter, Savana Turner. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on January 9 of 2018, at the Presbyterian Church of Easton.

Dorothy Lee Sawyer

November 27, 1931 - December 7, 2017