Dorothy Baker Feld

Feld, Dorothy Baker
Bloomington, IN – Dorothy Baker Feld, 95, died here on Thursday, February 18, of natural causes.
She was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, the daughter of Ruth (Harper) and Dwight Baker. After graduating from Ottumwa High School, she attended the Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School in Boston. She then worked at MIT on the Manhattan Atomic Bomb project during the last years of World War II.
After other secretarial positions in Chicago, in 1946 Dorothy decided to further her education by attending Brown University's Pembroke College. She drew on her secretarial skills to finance her studies and graduated in 1950 with an A.B. in English literature and election to Phi Beta Kappa. Dorothy then moved to New Haven, Connecticut and, after receiving a Master's in Education from Southern Connecticut University, spent the next 25 years as an elementary school teacher.
In 1955, Dorothy married Otto Feld. The couple lived in East Haven, Connecticut until his death in 1990. They raised Otto's teenage son, David, who Dorothy later adopted along with his older sister Nancy. Dorothy remained in Connecticut until moving to Bloomington in 2010, where she spent the last years of her life at the Meadowood Retirement Community, much of that time with her sister Shirley.
Dorothy led an active life. She regularly visited members of her far-flung family. She was an engaged member of the over 300-year-Old Stone Church in New Haven, where she participated in numerous volunteer activities and was honored as a 50-year member in 2013. She supported a wide range of causes by contributing to organizations such as Amnesty International, Planned Parenthood, and the United Negro College Fund. Dorothy also became an avid women's basketball fan after being drawn to the sport first by the UConn Huskies and then the IU Hoosiers. She was even more passionate about games. She loved to play card games from bridge to poker and to work on puzzles from crossword to jigsaw. A voracious reader, she read books on topics ranging from current events to historical fiction. A wonderfully outgoing, friendly woman, Dorothy enlivened every place she lived and worked. As a final contribution to learning, which she valued so greatly and to which she dedicated so much of her life, Dorothy donated her body to the Indiana University School of Medicine.
In addition to her husband, Dorothy was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters Bettina Connelly and Shirley Baker Manuel Anderson, her brothers-in-law Max Connelly and Ernest H. Manuel, and her son David and his wife Irene.
She is survived by her daughter Nancy Brown (Charles) in St. Helena Island, South Carolina; her niece Tina Manuel [Michael] in Bloomington; and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Due to the pandemic, a reception honoring Dorothy's life will be held for family and friends at a later time.