Dorothy Mary O’Callaghan Campion-Corcoran (Dotty) died on March 21, 2019, at age 87 as the result of a stroke, in the Skilled Nursing Unit of The Arbor at Galloway Ridge, in Fearrington Village, North Carolina.
Dotty was born on July 11, 1931, the third of six children of Edmund and Dorothea (Ready) O’Callaghan. She is predeceased by her siblings, Donal O’Callaghan, Edmund O’Callaghan, Constance (O’Callaghan) Looney, Paul O’Callaghan and Thomas O’Callaghan. She graduated from Newton High School, in Newton, MA and attended Carney Hospital School of Nursing in Dorchester, MA.
On June 14, 1950 she married James Walsh Campion III (Jim) of Hanover, NH; they had met on a blind date at Governor Dummer Academy where he was a student. Between 1951 and 1957 they had six children: Constance Campion Harvey (Connie) of Vero Beach, FL, married to Nicholas Harvey (Nick); James Walsh Campion, IV (Jay) of Etna, NH, married to Polly Kent Campion; Kathleen Campion Lord of Fearrington Village, NC, married to John C. Lord (Jack); Edmund Ronan Campion (Ed) of Chapel Hill, NC, married to Margaret Norton Campion; Karen Campion Weaver of Gilford, NH, married to Richard Weaver (Dick); and Kevin Ready Campion of Minnetonka, MN, married to Barbara Doebley Campion. Thomas Visoky became part of their family in 1973. Dotty’s husband Jim died in 1982, and she subsequently married Martin Francis Corcoran (Marty), who brought his son Martin Francis Corcoran Jr. (Martin) of Claremont, NH, into the family.
Over the years Dotty was involved in many diverse areas of interest. Before Dartmouth College embraced co-education, the college would reach into the community for the female roles in their theater productions. Dotty performed in many of these, including leading roles in the musicals “The Pajama Game” and “Wonderful Town”; more serious” roles, such as Moliere’s “The Misanthrope”, were also part of her repertoire. She later continued her love for theater with productions of The North Country Community Theater, where she played the role of Blanche in “Glass Menagerie”.
Having grown up in a city, one of the first things Dotty needed to do upon marrying and moving to New Hampshire was to learn to ski. She was an eager student, and later went on to teach in the Ford Sayre Ski Program. Skiing was a feature of family life and it was an integral part of The Bus Trip. In 1965, the whole family piled into a greyhound bus that Jim had converted into an early version of an RV, and set off on a two month cross-country adventure. They skied and visited sites from Mt. Rushmore to the Grand Canyon, from the San Diego Zoo to Beale St. in New Orleans, and on to the monuments in Washington, DC. After arriving home again, Dotty returned to working in the family store, James W. Campion, Inc., on Main Street in Hanover, NH., and continued to work there until 1982. In 1993, she opened a reincarnation of that store as Campion’s Women’s Clothing Store in Hanover.
Throughout her life Dotty had an interest in the workings of the mind, she had a great curiosity about its influence upon how people interacted with each other. This lead her to become involved with Rehabilitation Counseling, also known as Co-Counseling. This, and her relationship with the Catholic Church, developed in her a depth of caring that was reflected in how she lived her life. Her commitment to her community led to her election as Commissioner of Grafton County, NH in 1979; she served in that position until 1988. In 1987, she initiated what would become her proudest achievement: she, along with Peg Little and Trix Officer, founded the non-profit organization Good Beginnings of the Upper Valley. The purpose of Good Beginnings was, and continues to be, to make sure that every baby enjoys a “good beginning”; the services of the organization are available to every family in the community with a new baby.
In 2007, Dotty and her husband Marty moved to the Galloway Ridge Retirement Community in Fearrington Village, NC. Marty died at Galloway Ridge at after a prolonged illness in 2009. While living there, she continued to show her caring nature by assisting with the tutoring of adults in a local English as a Second Language class, as well as reading to children at a local daycare center.
She came from a large family, and had a large family of her own. Her children called her Mom or Momma, or Mummy, and even, occasionally Mother. Her 11 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren who are scattered throughout the country called her Gabin.
And then there is the extended family: a whole flock of Campions, Corcorans, O’Callaghans, Looneys, and Murphys; they all called her Aunt Dotty. Anyone who met her, whether it was her fellow Galloway Ridge residents and Staff, the entire populous of Hanover, the folks she met in Cocoa Beach, FL where she and Marty spent many winters playing golf and enjoying their life, or for that matter, the person she met in line at the grocery store…they all called her “My Friend”.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by The Cremation Society of the Carolinas, and Rand-Wilson Funeral Home in Hanover, NH. A memorial service was held at the Chapin Auditorium at Galloway Ridge, which was open to the whole community from 2 to 4 p.m. on Monday, March 25, 2019. There will also be a Mass for Christian Burial at St. Denis Parish, in Hanover, NH; with interment at Pine Knoll Cemetery, and a reception to follow at a later date.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made in her honor to Good Beginnings of the Upper Valley, 93 Main Street, Lebanon, NH 03784, and Gigi’s Playhouse Twin Cities, 4750 Park Glen Roda, St. Louis Park, MN 55416.
Condolences may be shared at CremationSocietyNC.com.