Maureen Dunham Holtzman

Maureen Dunham Holtzman obituary, Rochester, NY

Maureen Dunham Holtzman

Maureen Holtzman Obituary

Obituary published on Legacy.com by Anthony Funeral & Cremation Chapels - Brighton/Rochester Chapel on Oct. 16, 2025.

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Maureen Dunham Holtzman, aged 95, passed away peacefully on October 9, 2025, surrounded by family and caregivers.
Maureen was born in 1930 in New York City, the daughter of Howard and Priscilla McNamara. From infancy, Maureen's life was marked by adventure and stories. Her parents were admirers of Harlem's vibrant music scene: before Maureen's birth, Howard and Priscilla attended performances by Cab Calloway in Harlem during the late 1920s. Howard McNamara, in his younger years, was involved in coaching the Flushing Giants in the era when professional football was just getting started.
When Maureen was still a baby, her mother's sister-known for her beauty and connections to the entertainment world-relocated to Hollywood and brought along Priscilla and young Maureen. The journey, likely by train over several days, took them from bustling cityscapes through plains and desert to Los Angeles, where they stayed temporarily with the famed film director King Vidor, then working on films such as Cynara. Maureen's earliest days were thus spent in proximity to stars and creatives-Garbo, Powell, Gable-as Hollywood learned to speak.
Eventually the family returned east, and life settled in Binghamton, New York. Maureen's younger sister Sharon joined the family. Her father moved from coaching into advertising sales, and Priscilla, with her artistic and spiritual leanings, surrounded herself with writers, dancers, composers, and artists. Maureen told a favorite tale of once walking out of her New York apartment as a toddler, prompting a panicked search by her father-but doing so with a calm certainty uncharacteristic in a child of two.
In Binghamton, Maureen grew up next door to a young Rod Serling. She remembered playful pranks, such as pushing the future television legend off her back porch when he was a pest.
In the 1940s she became a spirited teenager, one of the many "bobbysoxers" who danced to Frank Sinatra tunes and learned jitterbug moves. She witnessed, in quieter times, the strains of the Great Depression and war, navigating strong emotions and periods of family difficulty as a child.
Education was always a value in the McNamara household. In the early 1950s, Maureen attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, where she heard Eleanor Roosevelt speak on civil rights and integration, a moment that left a deep impression. She and her college roommates listened to Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb over late-night radios, and devised playful schemes-such as using eyebrow pencil to draw seam lines down their bare legs to simulate pantyhose or climbing stone walls to skirt curfew.
After Stephens, Maureen earned her teaching certificate at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, then returned to Binghamton to begin her professional and personal life. She met and married her first husband, Stuart Dunham (then a reporter with the Binghamton Press), with whom she had daughters Caroline and Sara. Later, in 1960s, they welcomed her youngest, Elisabeth. The family moved through New Jersey and Connecticut before settling in Rochester, New York, when her husband accepted a position there as Executive Editor of the Democrat & Chronicle and Times-Union which would win the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for coverage of the Attica prison uprising under Dunham's supervision.
Maureen was a devoted mother, generous hostess, and lover of beauty. Her home was always full-friends, students, exchange students, animals, laughter. She collected antiques, decorated with taste and care, and tended English-style gardens outside. She cooked in French styles (ratatouille, soufflés), something she learned by watching Julia Childs on PBS, and taught her daughters to appreciate art, literature, theater, and travel.
She also pursued community engagement and public service. In the 1970s she volunteered with the Pittsford urban-suburban school busing initiative, bringing students from the city into better schools in the suburbs at a time when local sentiment opposed such integration. She joined the board of the Geva Theater in Rochester, advocating for bold productions (for example, staging Much Ado About Nothing in a futuristic setting). She worked at Gallery 696, selling furniture and art by notable artists and furniture makers. Her belief in civic life, creativity, and fairness guided much of her adult life. Stuart died in December of 1980 at age 60.
In 1983, Maureen married Arthur "Art" M. Holtzman.
Art and Maureen shared many years of companionship, service, and civic engagement. Art had been a longtime insurance agent (co-owner of Art Holtzman Associates, affiliated with Mutual of Omaha) following an early career at Eastman Kodak and military service in the Navy. He served on boards including the Landmark Society of Western New York, the Pittsford School Board, and Geva Theatre. He was active at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church and was deeply invested in cultural and historical preservation causes. Because of their shared values, Maureen and Art often served together in civic work. They were both involved with Geva and other non-profits.
Art passed away at the age of 99 after a long, full life on November 3, 2020, Pittsford, New York.
Maureen found deep fulfillment in travel, family vacations, theater, friendship, gardens, art, reading, and hosting vibrant conversations. She was never afraid to speak her mind and enjoyed bringing together a colorful group of friends, including doctors and dentists, artists and actors, many of whom would join the family for holiday parties. One Christmas Eve, Geva actors joined the family reciting poetry, singing and playing piano for hours.
She is survived by her daughters Cally Dunham Sheller and her husband, Rick, Sara Dunham and her husband Lloyd, and Elisabeth Dunham and her husband, Scott, as well as her beloved niece Kathleen Difulvio Kaepplinger and family.
She is also survived by four step-children Janet Gates, John Holtzman, Ann Beale, Ellen Zeph and by her cherished grandchildren Kate, Danny, Eli, Ava, Kaylee, and Cristian, along with step-grandchildren Corey Gates, Caroline Gates, Kevin Beale, Alex Beale, Eric Holtzman, and Michael Holtzman.
Maureen was a devoted grandmother to them all, taking pride in every stage of their lives-from first steps to graduations and every accomplishment in between. In her later years, her grandchildren were the light of her life, filling her room at Pittsford-Highlands Living Center with laughter.
A memorial celebration honoring Maureen will be scheduled in 2026. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to Geva Theater.

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

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