Dora Hauser

Dora Hauser passed away at home on March 9, 2002. She grew up on San Marcos and graduated from Southwest Texas University at the age of 20. She married Glenn Thompson, an Army pilot, and moved to Germany where her husband was killed in a plane crash in 1954. They had a son, Glenn D. Thompson. In 1957, she graduated on the Dean's List from St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio. She married Julius Grossenbacher and they reared three children. Glen, Lisa and Gary. Dora put her legal career on hold until 1964 when St. Mary's University became a coed educational institution and offered her the position of Dean of Women. Dr. Joseph Schmitz, Vice President and Dean of Faculties of St. Mary's University, stated that the university needed someone who understood not only the needs of women in an almost exclusively male student body, but was familiar with the faculty then comprised principally of male religious members who had limited experience with female students. Dora became the first Dean of Women of St. Mary's University, and in the Fall of 1964, she took the responsibility for approximately 50 women students. She promptly shaped policy for integrating women into the university and built them a dormitory in 1967. Thereafter, the women came to St. Mary's in droves. Before leaving in 1973, she had become their first female Dean of Students. The newly created University of Texas at San Antonio formed the nucleus of an administrative staff in the early 1970s. President Peter Flawn offered Dora the position of Dean of Students in 1973. A Bilingual administrator, she established policies as well as administrative rules and procedures for the fledgling university. During her 18 years of service at UTSA, she managed non-academic student activities including sports and other student services. She resigned in 1991, UTSA's only Dean of Students. Dora served as member of the Board of Directors of the Southern association of Colleges and Universities, the accrediting organization for 11 southeastern states where she also served on the Executive Council. She was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Service (DACOWITS) where she served on the Executive Committee. She was on the Board of Directors of the Texas National Bank and the Executive National Bank. She also served on the Board of Directors, and as President of the San Antonio Little Theater and the San Pedro Playhouse. She received the "Headliner Award" for community service and was a member of the Zonta Club and Vice President of the United Way. Dora served on the Grievance Committee of the State Bar of Texas. She also chaired a select committee of the State Bar that created the Mentor Program for Young Lawyers. In 1979, Dora married radiologist Bill O. Hauser, M.D. Together they traveled the world, frequented the theater, and built a second home on Canyon Lake for entertaining good friends and gathering the family. She is survived by her husband, Bill, and her three children, Glenn Grossenbacher, an attorney in San Antonio, Lisa Grossenbacher Wiseman, M.D., an Austin pediatrician, and Gary Grossenbacher, an Austin attorney, as well as seven grandchildren, Savannah, Marsy and James Wiseman, Max, Miles and Martin Grossenbacher of Austin, and Gracie Grossenbacher of San Antonio. Dora's energy, dignity and grace will live on in the hearts and minds of all who knew her especially the thousands of students she had inspired to pursue their dreams through education. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Dora Grossenbacher Hauser Memorial Scholarship for Legal Studies at St. Mary's University School of Law, One Camino Santa Maria, San Antonio, TX 78228-8528. SERVICES A Rosary will be held Tuesday, March 12, 2002 at 7:00 P.M. at Mission Park Funeral Chapels North, 3401 Cherry Ridge Drive. A Funeral Mass will be held Wednesday, March 13, 2002 at 2:00 P.M. at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 758 W. Ramsey, San Antonio. Interment to follow at Mission Burial Park North. Mission Park Funeral Chapels North.