Norah Hamilton Straus

"The Guide Dog lady", Norah Hamilton Straus, passed away peacefully on the morning of Thursday March 27, 2014 in Santa Barbara.

Norah was born Norah-Belle Erhardt Goldsmith on September 26, 1914 in Long Island, NY. At the age of six her parents were killed in an automobile accident in England. She was raised by her grandmother Nora-Belle (Jewett) Erhardt until she was sent to an English boarding school at the age of nine. Summers were spent with her five cousins at the home of the late Washington Irving at "Sunnyside" on the Hudson, which was owned then by her uncle Louis Irving (today the home is a Rockefeller Trust property). She returned to the United States when she was sixteen, and after spending a year at Oldfields, she became one of the first Powers Models during her New York debutante days, combining modeling with volunteer work at Bellevue Hospital.

During World War II, Norah moved to Boston and joined the Red Cross, she also volunteered as a fire warden and later was appointed to serve at Walter Reed Hospital by Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenburg as liaison between Air Force personnel and the Pentagon. This job pioneered rehabilitation services for blind servicemen and developed programs to improve the morale of blind amputees. She met and worked for Dr. Howard Rusk, founder of Rehabilitation Medicine in New York, with his public support for disabled veterans. This was to become a theme continuing thru Norah's life?helping the blind and also disabled veterans.

After the war, Norah's volunteer work continued while she traveled with her then husband, Major General Pierpont Morgan Hamilton, on his military assignment as chief negotiator for NATO air bases in Europe and North Africa. In Paris she helped found Aid to French War Orphans of the Résistance forces.

She also sought out Humane Societies wherever she lived and became a board member of the Santa Barbara Humane Society when she and her husband returned there in 1951. Norah's skills with the Blind and love for animals (particularly dogs) would bring her together with Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc. in San Rafael, California. She became its first Santa Barbara Chairman/fundraiser and later was elected President of their Board. As their President she traveled over 50,000 miles a year increasing public awareness of the school. After fifteen years as President she stepped down but continued in an advisory capacity and was voted Director Emeritus in 1992. At the same time she joined the Board of Directors for the Rehabilitation Institute at Santa Barbara and during the next sixteen yeas chaired many events as a volunteer fundraiser. In 1988, Norah was chosen Top Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year by the National Society of Fundraising Executives. One of Norah's most recent causes was sending requested items to our troops in Iraq and Afganistan and lastly she was a supporter of the Wounded Warrior Project.

Norah is survived by her husband of 30 years, King Straus and their beloved dog KoKoMo. Her children, Harold Erhardt Hamilton, Lilias Antionette Folan (husband L. Robert Folan), and Nicholas Benedict Soutter (Diane Reed). Grandchildren Circe Charlotte and Joel Hamilton, Michael Hamilton Folan and Matthew Raftery Folan (wife Leslie Carroll), Elizabeth Bigelow (Soutter) Schwarzer (husband Franklin Schwarzer), Nicholas Lamar Soutter (wife Holly Heaslet) and many great-grandchildren. Norah's family would like to express their sincere gratitude to Maria Santoyo and Rosario Gonzalez for their long term loving care and attention and to Henry Miranda.

The services will be private and a celebration of Norah's life will be at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to one of the causes dear to Norah's heart, including:

Guide Dogs for the Blind, Wounded Warrior Project and the Santa Barbara Humane Society.