Dorothy Martha Schurmann's Obituary
Dorothy Martha Schurmann, a lifelong companion to her mother who lived with Alzheimer’s until age 99 thanks to her daughter’s care, died on August 26, 2019, at Alta Bates Hospital from an aneurysm. During her last 20 years, she enriched a solitary life through a passion for learning, a concern for others and a deep faith in God.
That life was centered in her small, immaculately kept apartment on Kempton Way where she lived for close to 50 years. A fixture on Piedmont Ave, she loved to shop at Piedmont Grocery and then browse the store fronts from Broadway to the Chapel of the Chimes where she regularly visited her mother’s remains. Every day she never failed to collect mail from the many charities she supported, check in on her neighbors and read the Oakland Tribune in her screened-in porch looking out over the Bay and the Oakland hills.
“She was the beating heart of our building,” said her neighbor and friend David Valentin who described her as a constant and reassuring presence for residents of the building. Both David and Michael Wilkins, another neighbor, were present when Dottie, as she was affectionately known, passed on. Added David, “She will be missed but also felt forever.”
Like her brother, the well known sinologist and journalist Franz Schurmann, Dottie pursued a lifelong passion for ancient history. Largely self-educated, she became an expert in the histories of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. Her small library included the monumental seven-volume set of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which she read in its entirety, along with works by Goethe, Henry James, Catulus and St. Augustine, as well as biographies of the pharaohs and treatises on the ancient Egyptian belief in an afterlife. By her chair in the sunroom was a book on physics and a notepad of French vocabulary exercises.
“The only time I ever really irritated her was when I was critical of the Romans.” said her nephew Mark Schurmann who enjoyed long talks with her at her kitchen table. “She was one of the most knowledgeable yet least judgmental people I’ve ever known.”
A retirement album given to her by colleagues for her retirement from Exxon-Mobile where she worked as a secretary for 15 years is filled with hand-written letters that testify to her erudition and diligence. “I feel very fortunate to know you, your philosopher’s mind, worldly approach to life and knowledge about every conceivable subject,” wrote one coworker.
Dorothy Martha Schurmann was born in New York City in 1930 to Martha and Frank Schurmann. German was Dottie’s first language, her parents having immigrated from Germany and Slovenia respectively in the 1920s. During the depression, the family relocated to Bloomfield, Connecticut, just outside of Hartford, a culturally rich immigrant enclave of Irish, Italian, Polish and French Canadian immigrants where Dottie’s father found work as a tool and dyemaker. Frank Schurmann died suddenly from an aneurysm in 1940, and when her older brother Franz was drafted in the army, Dottie and her mother found themselves on their own during difficult times. As a result, the two formed a lifelong partnership, eventually moving to Berkeley, California to be closer to Franz, who was then teaching at the University of California. They operated the Doe Shop on Telegraph Avenue for nearly 20 years selling coffee, pastries and sandwiches. After selling the shop in 1968, Dottie went to secretarial school, then went to work for Exxon-Mobile, retiring in 1987. When her mother lost all mobility due to Alzheimer’s, Dottie became a daily presence at the Ashby Care Center in Berkeley for almost a decade. She would return to the Center to offer comfort and companionship to others long after her mother died.
Dottie enjoyed holiday gatherings with her brother’s family across the Bay, but she was always happy to return to her apartment where she insisted on living, even when her health declined. To her nephews she was a devoted aunt who gave much and asked little in return beyond an occasional visit and some conversation on her favorite topics.
One of her fondest memories was of a train trip up to Connecticut from New York when she was a girl and a joyous reunion with her beloved father waiting for her at the train station in Hartford.
“He had been gone for weeks,” she recounted recently to her nephews. “I remember seeing him as I got off the train and running into his arms. He picked me up and spun me around. I missed him so much.”
In her last hours, as her body gave out and her mind wandered unrestrained over the contours of her life, perhaps she again found her father waiting for her at that train station.
Dottie’s brother, Franz Schurmann died in 2010. She is survived by her sister in law Sandy Close of San Francisco as well as nephews Mark and Peter Schurmann, Peter’s wife Aruna Lee and her grand nephew Leon Schurmann, all of San Francisco.
A memorial service will be held in her honor at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, on Sept. 28, 3-5 pm.
What’s your fondest memory of Dorothy?
What’s a lesson you learned from Dorothy?
Share a story where Dorothy's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Dorothy you’ll never forget.
How did Dorothy make you smile?