In Memoriam Dorothea Altmann By admin April 6, 2023 0 Dottie Altmann Dorothea (Dottie) Altmann Dorothea (Dottie) Altmann neé Dalzell was born in Gates, New York on June 3rd, 1926, the only child of Frederick and Mabel Dalzell neé Ernisse. She passed on March 24th, 2023, in Phoenix, Arizona. Dottie attended Madison High School in Gates and graduated form the Eastman School of Music (1947) and then taught high school music in Kenmore, New York. She joined an International Students’ Club at the University of Rochester in 1949, and met her future husband there in 1950. She was married to Heinz Conrad Altmann, of Stuttgart, Germany, on September 8th, 1951. After a brief honeymoon in Canandaigua, New York, Dottie went back to work while Heinz studied to complete his Bachelor’s degree in Engineering. Together, they raised four children: William Conrad of Austin, Texas; Lawrence Frederick of Severna Park, Maryland; Richard Henry of Bixby, Oklahoma; and Nancy Marie (Jones) of Phoenix, Arizona. Each married and raised families of their own, spread out across the U.S. At her passing, Dottie had 9 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. She was very, very proud of them all. Dottie lived in Irondequoit, New York until 1982 when she and Heinz retired to move to South Bristol, New York, on a wooded property they had owned since the early ‘60s. They lived there, in a house constructed for their retirement years, until 2013 when they moved to an apartment at Ferris Hills in Canandaigua. After Heinz’s passing in early 2014, Dottie continued to live at Ferris Hills until 2019 when she moved to Phoenix, Arizona to be near her daughter, Nancy. Dottie enjoyed reading, music and crafts through her entire life. She was an active leader in Cub Scouts while her sons were of that age. She played the violin or the piano occasionally at church in Naples, New York. Her favorite places were the homes of her four children, distributed far apart as they were. Keeping in touch with them and pulling the family together was perhaps Dottie’s biggest challenge in life. Her biggest joys were listening to them trade stories, and holding the babies as they came along. Dottie is survived in her generation only by Conrad Altmann, her brother-in-law, and his wife, Doris Altmann. She succeeded in the war years, the Sixties, and in each of the decades to follow. She liked to brag to acquaintances that all four of her children grew up into fine adults, with fine marriages and families of their own. Coming from a single-child family and never having held a baby before her first, she was quite proud of how marriage and family turned out!
