CRUM, Lois (Dodd) 88, of Weston, died peacefully on November 4, 2019 of kidney failure.
She was born on August 18, 1931, the daughter of Henry Ellis and Edna May Dodd of Hackensack, NJ.
She is survived by her husband of 63 years, M. Colyer Crum; her four children (and their spouses): William Crum (Susan W. Crum), Richard Crum (Michelle D. Miller), Nancy Crum Ferry (Thomas R. Ferry), and Wendy Crum Bennet (W. Stiles Bennet); and eight grandchildren: David and Michael Crum; Madeleine, Olivia, Natalie and Riker Ferry; and Cooper and Brittany Bennet. Lois is also survived by her younger sister, Nancy (Dodd) Le Fevre, and her family.
Lois lived in Weston, MA for over 45 years, starting in 1966, before moving to North Hill, a retirement community in Needham, MA in 2012. She graduated with an Associate’s degree from Centenary College in Hackettstown, NJ in 1951, then attended Cornell University, where she joined the Delta Gamma sorority and earned an A.B. in Biological Sciences in 1953, and she later completed a Master’s of Nursing (MN) from the Yale School of Nursing (YSN) in 1956. Lois was one of the first women appointed to the Association of Yale Alumni (AYA) Board after Yale College became co-ed in 1969.
A registered nurse, she served for decades as a counselor at the Cambridge, Brookline and Worcester branches of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, providing much needed medical and family planning advice to a wide range of male and female clients, despite repeated threats to these clinics.
Always an active participant in her community, Lois belonged to the Congregational Church of Weston, supported the Roxbury / Weston Preschool Program and was a Girl Scout leader.
Lois enjoyed traveling with her family to most of the fifty states and abroad to South America, Africa, Russia, China, Japan, Australia and especially Western Europe, while maintaining a vacation home in Sunapee, NH. She loved gardening, classical music, cooking, theatre, JRR Tolkien, tennis, skiing, ice skating, horseback riding and, above all, walking her golden retrievers.
Her cremated remains will be interned at a private family ceremony at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA and a memorial service is being planned for some time next year.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her memory to the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and/or the Yale School of Nursing, with condolences sent to the George F. Doherty & Sons Funeral Home in Wellesley, MA. For more information, see https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-massachusetts (Donate Locally), and https://nursing.yale.edu (Gift Information).