Dorothea Garber Cracas

Dorothea Garber Cracas obituary, Cedar Grove, NJ

Dorothea Garber Cracas

Dorothea Cracas Obituary

Published by Legacy Remembers on Oct. 9, 2023.
Dorothea Garber Cracas of Cedar Grove, New Jersey died on October 2, 2023. She was 93 years old.

Dorothea was born on June 24, 1930, in Irvington, New Jersey to David and Rose Garber. She attended Weequahic High School and then the New Jersey College for Women, the predecessor of Douglass College of Rutgers University, in New Brunswick from which she graduated in 1951.

At college, Dorothea met Ronald Cracas, captain of the debate team at nearby Princeton University, whom she married in 1952 while they both were attending Harvard Law School.

Dorothea graduated from Harvard in 1954 as one of the first women ever admitted to the law school and one of only 16 women in a class of 500. Throughout her life she was a strong advocate for women and women's rights.

After law school, Dorothea joined the legal department of AT&T in their headquarters in New York and then the firm of Donovan, Leisure. Later, she moved to New Jersey to practice with Crummy, Del Deo in Newark and then with Dillon, Bitar, and Luther in Morristown.

Dorothea's area of practice was trusts and estates. She was a frequent contributor on tax and estate issues to the journal Medical Economics and was a highly respected member of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). Continuing to practice part-time into her nineties, she never fully retired.

Dorothea was a great lover of opera and, for decades until quite recently, she and her husband never missed a season of the Met. She also loved to travel. She and her husband traveled extensively in the U.S. and abroad. Their last international trip was to China.

Her favorite spot, however, was the family beach house on the ocean in Barnegat Light, New Jersey. This is where she spent as much time as possible, usually on the beach, bundled up with a sweatshirt and a good book. It is also where she and her husband were among the small group of friends who founded the Loveladies Tennis Club in 1969.

Dorothea had one sister, Bert Modell, who predeceased her. She is survived by Ronald, her loving and devoted husband of 71 years; her son David and her daughter Victoria; three grandsons, Luke, Orion, and Gary; and two nieces, Lisa Fisher and Madalyn Chusid.

A celebration of her life will be scheduled for a later date. Contributions in lieu of flowers should be made to Planned Parenthood.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

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