Dorothy H. Rowland

1925 - 2021

On April 14, 2021, Dorothy "Dot" Cecelia Hogarty Rowland died peacefully at home on her Upperco, Maryland horse farm. The art teacher, golfer, artist, and horsewoman was 95. Dot was born on October 10, 1925 in Pikesville, Maryland to William Edward Hogarty and Mary (nee Sinnott) Hogarty. Dot's mother died in 1927, so her grieving father enlisted his sisters, Alice and Delphine Hogarty, to help raise his three young daughters. Alice and Delphine would devote their lives to caring for their nieces alongside their dear brother. Growing up on a Pikesville farm, with a determination to learn to ride but no horses available, tenacious young Dot taught herself to ride on the cows and mules. Dot was gifted a weanling Chincoteague pony named Bambi, which her aunt and father drove home from the shore in the back of his station wagon. Dot and Bambi became an inseparable pair over the years, competing in many local horse shows together. Bambi lived into his 40's and helped teach generations of Hogarty children how to ride. Dot loved all farm animals, especially chickens, and as a child declared she would become a vegetarian to save them from the dinner plate. In her teens, she volunteered at the Baltimore County Humane Society, caring for the shelter animals and bringing many home. She would spend her lifetime finding and caring for lost, injured, and sick animals – everything from hummingbirds with bent beaks, to orphaned raccoons. After graduating from Forest Park High School, Dot earned a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts, and a Master of Arts in Art Education from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). While attending college as an undergraduate, Dot hand-painted fine objects of art for Mrs. Ellen Page Smith in her Baltimore fine arts studio and furniture enterprise. For over twenty years, she served as an art teacher in public elementary schools across Baltimore and Carroll County, and loved teaching art to children of all ages and backgrounds, including her own children and grandchildren. As an artist, Dot painted in oils and watercolors, and was past President of Baltimore Watercolor Club. She exhibited her artwork throughout her life, and at 92 years of age, she had an art exhibition of watercolor paintings at the Carroll County Hampstead Administration Building. In 2017, Dot was recognized and designated a member of the MICA Master Guild, to honor alumni creative life endeavors and achievements fifty years after their graduation. Dot was also a skilled and avid golfer. Taught at an early age by her father, the pair played golf until William's death at the age of 94. With a proud left-handed swing, she won many women's golf championships including the Jimmy Flattery Women's Golf Championship in 1950, 1952, and 1954, and retiring the Jimmy Flattery Challenge Trophy. She also won the Baltimore Sunpapers Cup, Women's Golf Champion Baltimore Public Parks (1949 - 1950), and many other championships. In 1970 she was the Piney Branch Golf Course Women's Golf Champion, and the Piney Branch Women's Championship Runner Up in 1972. She actively played golf well into her 90's with her son, Dr. Preston Rowland, nephew, and two grandsons. For decades, Dot raised horses on her Upperco farm. She was especially proud as the breeder and owner of the stunning, white Trakehner stallion Special Memories, affectionately called "Boo," winner of an international open jumping class, Madison Square Garden Horse Show, New York, and a champion open jumper, Grand Prix Level class. At the Toronto Royal Fair, Special Memories was part of the Nations Cup Team. He was awarded several Championship Open Jumper Awards by the American Trakehner Association. The son of the champion open jumper Abdullah, Special Memories was a successful sire of performance horses around the world. Dot passed her love of horses on to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Both of her daughters, Jacqueline and Jennifer, became successful amateur and professional riders, trainers, and breeders. Proud of her Irish heritage, Dot traveled to Ireland to explore, attend horse races, and tour ancient legacy architectural sites with her daughter, Jacqueline Rowland Vaughn. She was an avid reader, enjoying Irish literature and art books. And with an acerbic wit, Dot loved retelling old Irish jokes at family gatherings. She enjoyed weddings, parties and dancing. As a naturalist and conservationist with a deep-rooted love of nature, Dot spent countless hours working to protect and document rare and vulnerable bog turtles in the Piney Run, when the critically endangered species was threatened with development that would destroy their wetland habitat. She placed her Upperco farm in the Rural Legacy Land Piney Run Conservation Program to help preserve the Piney Run and its diverse ecosystem. Her family shares that legacy as amateur and professional naturalists, wildlife educators, and zoo keeper. With an interest in her rural farming roots, she regularly attended the Arcadia Steam Show. Continuing with her horse farm operation until her death, she was also a regular at the Westminster Hay Sale until recent months. Her grandchildren fondly remember helping "Gack," as she was known to many family members, at the hay sale every summer, which typically involved stopping the truck to jump out and pick up hay bales as they fell off the pile in the truck bed. Every day was an adventure if you got to spend it with Gack. Dot was preceded in death by her parents, aunts, and two sisters, Alice Eugenia (Jean) McKenney and Margaret Mudge. She is survived by her son, Dr. Preston Rowland of Monkton (Lynn); two daughters, Jacqueline Rowland Vaughn and Jennifer Rowland Small of Upperco; four grandchildren, Victor, Alastair, Jacqueline (Dhruv), and Patrick; three great-grandchildren, Layla, Sonia, and Kai; and many beloved nieces and nephews. Her marriage to Maryland State Police Lt. Col. Preston Rowland ended in divorce. Memorial services will be held at St. John's Church Western Run Parish, Reisterstown, Maryland, on Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 11 am. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to St. John's Church Western Run Parish, c/o The Reverend Tracy A. Bruce, 3738 Butler Road, Reisterstown, Maryland 21136, or The Retreat at Beckleysville Therapeutic Riding, c/o Mrs. Mary Shunk, Director, 4224 Beckleysville Road, Hampstead, MD 21074.