Dorothy Gray Gurney

1936 - 2022

Dorothy Gray Gurney
June 3, 1936 - January 2, 2022
State College, Pennsylvania - To the strains of her beloved Irish folk music, Dorothy Helen Gray Gurney, 85, of State College, departed this world on January 2, 2022, while in hospice care, bringing her rich and varied life to a close.
Born Dorothy Helen Kamer on June 3, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois, she grew up not far away in Downers Grove. In 1946, her family moved to the Los Angeles area, settling in Alhambra. Drawn to R&B and jazz, "Dot" led a classic 1950s southern California teen existence of beaches, mountains, deserts and the freeways in between.
As the first in her immediate family to attend college, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1957 with an English literature degree. At Berkeley, she served as the student editor of the Daily Cal newspaper. After graduating, she held a Mademoiselle magazine internship in New York City. The previous year, the position had gone to Joan Didion.
Returning to the Los Angeles basin, she reported for the Pacific Palisadian newspaper before marrying Michael Gray in June 1958 and starting a family two years later with the birth of their daughter, Michele Kathleen, the first of their six children. While in Los Angeles, she became friends with a Hollywood figure, Joel Reisner, and they teamed to write scripts for episodes of "I Love Lucy," "My Mother the Car " and "The Fugitive," among other shows.
After moving north to the San Francisco Bay Area and finally settling in Los Altos in an historic Victorian built by Sarah Winchester, Dorothy switched gears. In 1968, she became press secretary for a congressional candidate, Grayson Taketa. He didn't win, but the political bug had bitten her. She remained active in politics, which led to working for California Governor Jerry Brown's administration in 1975 as a legislative analyst to Secretary of Resources Claire Dedrick, helping the California Natural Resources Agency manage the state's natural, historical and cultural resources. With the state Department of Parks and Recreation director, Herb Rhoades, she identified sites of historic or environmental significance across the state for purchase as state parks. In 1978, she became a consultant to the state's Native American Heritage Commission, eventually writing the "Cultural Resources Handbook," a guide to preserving Native American cultural sites in California.
Her political career peaked in 1980 as a California delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Dorothy was a champion of grassroots political organizing and the power and importance of small donations, recognizing the corrupting influence of large donations to candidates and politicians. However, in the pre-Internet era, Dorothy's views became increasingly unpopular within her local Democratic Party circles. Her final campaign was in 1984, after which she retired from politics to focus on other passions.
In the mid-1970s, she began researching a book about successful, independent-minded frontier women. "Women of the West," a seminal work published in 1976, continues to be highly respected within women's studies programs, reprinted in 1998 by the University of Nebraska Press. Dorothy also co-authored "An Everyday Woman's Guide to Politics," also published in 1976.
Prior to her books' publication, Dorothy went through a divorce. But in 1977, she met Hartley Gurney, who shared her love for folk music and the comedy routines of Bob and Ray as well as Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Dorothy and Hartley married in 1988 and stayed together until his 2006 death.
After her work in Sacramento, Dorothy returned to school to earn a law degree from Santa Clara University, graduating magna cum laude in 1979. Two years later, she joined her law school's faculty as a visiting assistant professor specializing in legislation and tax law. During the 1980s, she also helped lead a campaign to protect a creek in her community from development.
In 1988, after visiting friends in State College, Dorothy left California for Colerain Forges Mansion, an ironmaster's home near Spruce Creek, Pa., built in the late 1700s and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Subsequently, she and Hartley restored the mansion to its former glory, uncovering the original kitchen hearth among other renovations. Dorothy also taught writing at Juniata College in the 1990s and later continued her activism by organizing the Save our Streams campaign against the environmental harm of a proposed subdivision near Warriors Mark.
In her last years, Dorothy donated the mansion to the Colerain Center for Education, Preservation and the Arts, a nonprofit dedicated to her legacy of preserving and protecting history, culture and the environment. A devout Catholic, she will be remembered for her sharp wit, keen intellect, charitable spirit, knowledge of antiques, pride in her Jewish and Irish Catholic ancestry, passion for gardening and music, and love for all things Irish, especially the Clancy Brothers.
She is survived by her daughter, Michele Rosenblum, of State College; sons Dan Gray, Jeremy Gray, Tim Gray and Matt Gray; and 10 grandchildren. A son, Theodore Gray, died in 1988. Also surviving are a younger sister, Sally Cvitanich, of Portland, Ore., and a younger brother, George Kamer, of Fullerton, Calif. A younger brother, Donald Kamer, preceded her in death, as well as her first husband in 2019.
Her family wishes to thank the staff of Juniper Village at Brookline and Dr. Mark Stephens of Penn State Health for their care and kindness during Dorothy's final months. A memorial service will be held later this summer at Colerain Forges Mansion. More details about the memorial as well as a place to donate to the Colerain Center can be found at coleraincenter.org.