In Memoriam: Dorothy H. Lilien

From Thomas M. Gallagher Funeral Home.

Dorothy Hope Lilien died January 17, 2016 at her home in Stamford after a long battle with breast cancer.

Born September 8, 1946, as Dorothy Hope Edelman, she was the second of three children of the late Nathaniel S. Edelman and Anne S. Edelman.

After attending elementary and high school in Long Beach, NY, she attended Harper College (in Binghamton NY) and graduated from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

She married Gary L. Lilien, who survives her, on June 8, 1967.

She received a Master’s Degree in Library Science from Columbia University in 1968, specializing in children’s literature. She worked as a children’s librarian for the New York Public Library for several years before taking leave to raise her daughter, Amy. She returned to the work force as a travel agent with Centre for Travel in State College, PA, where she has worked for the past three decades.

She was an avid reader and bird watcher and enjoyed traveling with her husband and family, having visited more than 60 countries and all seven continents. She has friends (both human and avian) around the world. Her second home was Australia where she and her husband spent more than three years and where she was able to visit last in November 2014.

Having been first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1979, she considered herself a breast cancer survivor, fortunate to see her daughter grow up, marry and produce two wonderful granddaughters. I

n addition to her husband, she is survived by her daughter Amy Lilien-Harper and Amy’s husband Glenn Harper of Stamford, her granddaughters Alanna and Calina Harper, her sister Marcie Natan and her brother Richard Edelman.

Funeral will take place 10 am, Wednesday, Jan. 20, Temple Sinai, 458 Lakeside Dr., Stamford.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made in her honor to Hope in Motion, Bennett Cancer Center, Stamford Hospital Foundation, 1351 Washington Blvd., Suite 202 Stamford, CT 06820.

Arrangements under the directions of Shippan’s Thomas M Gallagher Funeral Home 453 Shippan Ave., Stamford.

To send condolences to the family, please visit www.gallagherfuneralhome.com.