Betsy Firestone Bowers Dolan

BETSY FIRESTONE BOWERS DOLAN ASHEVILLE—Betsy Firestone Bowers Dolan, age 75, died Saturday, May 22, 2010, at Deerfield Retirement Community in Asheville. Mrs. Dolan was born April 2, 1935, in New York City to Ralph F. Bowers, MD, and Ruth Worman Bowers, both of Frederick, MD. Her father, Chief Surgical Resident at Cornell, moved the family back to Frederick when he was sent overseas with the Army during World War II. Following the war they moved to Memphis, TN, where Betsy attended East High School. On graduation, she entered Hood College, Frederick, MD, but following her first year there decided on a career in nursing and transferred to Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, TN. She graduated with an R.N. and a B.S. in nursing and accepted a teaching position with the School of Nursing. She married a medical resident there on March 16, 1957, and remained at Vanderbilt when her husband was inducted into the Air Force and transferred to northern Japan. She was granted military dependent travel, joining her husband there where their son was born and she became a mother and housewife. Following military service, they returned to Nashville where her husband completed post-graduate training in hematology at Vanderbilt and then entered practice in Springfield, MO, for 16 years. Their son entered college at Duke University in Durham, NC, when her husband accepted a teaching position with the UNC School of Medicine at a branch in Asheville, NC (MAHEC). A lifelong swimmer of considerable talent, Betsy taught swimming at the Asheville YMCA for 20 years. Athletic herself, she acquired a consuming passion for ACC basketball and the Duke team, in particular. She was a lifelong fan of the New York Yankees during baseball season. Betsy was a joy to all who knew her and enriched many lives. She was loved by everyone for her selflessness and wish to make others happy. She gave so much and asked so little. Her rare and complicated set of illnesses were borne with courage and without complaint for 18 years. Providentially, during the last seven months of her life, her New York Yankees won the World Series and her beloved Duke Blue Devils won the N.C.A.A. National Basketball Championship. She is survived by her husband, Daniel L. Dolan, M.D., of Asheville; brother, Ralph F. Bowers, Jr., of Columbia, MO; and her son, David M. Dolan, J.D., of Farmers Branch, TX. Betsy's cremated remains will be interred in her family plot within historic Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick, MD, near the graves of Barbara Fritchie and Francis Scott Key. She requested no funeral or memorial service, being so modest as to prefer living on in the hearts of all who knew her and loved her, which were many. Tax-deductible memorial contributions may be made to the Deerfield Residency Fund at 1617 Hendersonville Rd., Asheville, NC 28803. West Funeral Home, 17 Merrimon Ave., Weaverville, is assisting the family. www.WestFamilyFuneralServices.com