Norma G. Dowling

Mrs. Norma G. (Parrish) Dowling, formerly of Branchburg, New Jersey, died on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts. She was 90. Norma was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan on May 19, 1929, daughter of the late Gilford Parrish and Amy (Dalrymple) VanderBos. She graduated from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1952. She then embarked on a teaching career that spanned decades and continents. Norma met her husband Peter G. Dowling in Tripoli, Libya at Wheelus Air Force Base where she was teaching dependents of American service members and he was serving in U.S. Air Force. They married in London, England in 1957 and lived in Germany and Turkey before returning to the US in 1961. After living in Michigan for seven years they re-located to New Jersey where Norma taught French and English for the Bridgewater Public Schools until she retired in 1989. Norma loved music, reading, and enjoyed traveling overseas and continued to do so extensively with her late husband and family members after she retired. The wife of the late Peter G. Dowling and mother of the late Claudia A. Burzichelli, she leaves her son, John P. Dowling and his wife Hala of Framingham, Massachusetts; her son-in-law, Robert J. Burzichelli of Bridgewater, New Jersey; her grandchildren, Jacqueline Burzichelli and Corinne Burzichelli DeBerry, her husband Timothy and their son, Jack. She was also the step-daughter of the late Jacob VanderBos. Funeral services for Norma will be private. She will be buried with her husband Peter in Florida National Cemetery, Bushnell, Florida. Should friends desire, memorial contributions may be made to the Massachusetts COVID-19 Relief Fund - https://www.macovid19relieffund.org/