Dorothea Heisserman Driggs

Dorothea Heisserman Driggs Dorothea Heisserman Driggs died of natural causes at St. Mary's Medical Center in Newtown Township, Pa., the evening of June 3, 2008. She was 89 years old. Mrs. Driggs was known by her friends, family and associates in her government career as a woman of tremendous energy and fierce loyalty. To the very end of her long life that energy and great affection for her family continued. Dorothea Driggs and her husband, Don Fehring Driggs, lived in Tallahassee from 1962 until December 2007. At that time they both moved to Chandler Hall in Newtown, Pa., to be near their, daughter Patricia Knight. The daughter of Walter and Elsie Heisserman, she was born in Philadelphia on April 14, 1919. Her father was a skilled tool and dye maker while building up Shadybrook Farm outside Phoenixville, Pa. He raised deer, buffalo, sheep, small animals and peacocks. Her mother was a homemaker. Mrs. Driggs' parents gave her a horse named Pat for her 16th birthday and she regularly rode in local competitions. Mrs. Driggs graduated from Phoenixville High School in 1937. She went on to Norristown Business College, graduating in 1941. After high school she married Donald Travis Renshaw and they had one daughter, Patricia. Renshaw was killed in the Pacific theater of World War II. She later met Don Driggs of Salt Lake City at Valley Forge Hospital in Pennsylvania where she worked as a medical secretary and he was an injured Army aviator. Mr. Driggs had been seriously injured in the crash of an A-20 light bomber in Algeria. He had been a bomber navigator on an A-20 searching for German submarines in the Mediterranean Sea. Dorothea Heisserman and Don Driggs were married in Phoenixville on June 14, 1947, followed by a honeymoon on Nantucket Island. Mr. Driggs attended Temple University in Philadelphia. The couple then lived in Chapel Hill, N.C, where her two sons, Kenneth David and Randolph Kurt, were born and where her husband earned a Ph.D. in psychology. They later lived in Auburn, Ala., Knoxville, Tenn., Augusta, Ga., and Austin, Minn. The couple moved to Tallahassee in 1962 when Dr. Driggs joined the psychology faculty at Florida State University. In Tallahassee, Mrs. Driggs first worked for the Board of Control, later the Florida Board of Regents, as well as the Department of Education. From 1966 to 1971 she worked with the Center for Research in College Instruction of Science and Mathematics (CRICISAM) based at Florida State University, primarily with the late Prof. Gunter Schwarz. She moved to the staff of Governor Reuben Askew where she worked for Art England, a Miami lawyer who served as Governor Askew's consumer advisor. Next she worked in 1974 with the Governor's Efficiency and Management Study Commission, chaired by Jim Walters and Jack Eckerd. She then left state government to work as office manager in the successful Florida Supreme Court campaign of Justice Art England, who served on the court 1975-81. In 1975 after the England campaign, Mrs. Driggs became the grants coordinator and assistant director of the Florida Bicentennial Commission where she worked with Lt. Gov. Jim Williams of Ocala, forging a close personal bond with him. In 1978 she was the Tallahassee office manager in Williams' unsuccessful campaign for governor. In 1984 she helped organize public defender Mike Allen's re-election campaign and volunteered on Reuben Askew's presidential campaign. She was very active in the League of Women Voters, serving for a time as president of the Tallahassee chapter. She was also active in the FSU University Women's Club. Dr. Driggs retired from FSU in July 1981 and the couple traveled extensively around the world. They visited Mexico, Greece, Japan, the Soviet Union, Thailand, Canada and other countries. At one point their son, Randy, joined them in London in a flat he had rented for a month. Mrs. Driggs had never visited the Deep South until her husband took a faculty position at Auburn University in 1950. She grew to love the South and was pleased to show it off to relatives and friends who visited. In Tallahassee she was especially fond of the Jungle Cruise at Wakulla Springs and insisted all visitors take it with her. She strongly disapproved of the rigid segregation holding sway in the 1950s and '60s. She made sure her children were taught differently. Moderate racial views were taught in her home. In Tallahassee she and her husband sought out faculty friends at Florida A&M University. Through much of her life, Mrs. Driggs collected and refinished primitive American antiques. She collected in her native Northeast and often bought tall clocks from antique shops in Quincy. She was fiercely loyal to her three children and did everything she could to advance their lives. Her husband recalls her as enormously compassionate toward others. Driggs is survived by her husband of 61 years, Dr. Don F. Driggs of Newtown, Pa.; her daughter, Patricia Driggs Knight of New Hope, Pa.; her son, Ken Driggs of Atlanta, Ga.; and her son, Randy Driggs of Anaheim, Calif. She is also survived by a sister and brother-in-law, Ethel and Ross Dalton, living at Elm Terrace in Lansdale, Pa. Their children are Ross Dalton Jr. of Norristown, Pa., and Gail Dalton Kurilla of Harleysville, Pa. Mrs. Driggs is also survived by three small dogs that she loved dearly: Pee Wee, Sweetie and Heidi, all adopted from the Leon County Animal Shelter. Mrs. Driggs firmly believed her life was lengthened by regular morning and afternoon walks in public parks, especially the San Luis Ridge Park, with their dogs. Memorial services will be scheduled at a later date. Persons wishing to celebrate Dorothea Driggs' life are encouraged to make contributions to the Leon County Animal Shelter in her name.