The Farmingdale School District community received some very sad news late last month when they learned that longtime Farmingdale resident Dr. Dolores Saxton passed away on May 25. She was 71.

Dr. Saxton retired from the board of education in the summer of 2001 after a three-year tenure as a trustee and active member. Aside from being a member of the board of education, Dr. Saxton was an educator for many years. In addition to serving as the dean of instruction at Nassau Community College, Dr. Saxton also held the chair position of the nursing department and was working on writing textbooks about nursing in recent years.

Dr. Saxton was a member of the board from 1998 to 2001. A retired professor, she wrote textbooks and computer programs, always devoting herself to education in one way or another. She was always very involved in activities at Woodward Parkway Elementary School, even after her retirement. She was involved in their SHARED Decision Committee team and also read to children on a volunteer basis.

"Dr. Saxton will surely be missed, as a colleague and as a friend. She was a woman before her time; nurse, author, educator, Rotarian. Words cannot describe how I feel about her," said current school board president, Anthony Vitale. "She always had a smile on her face, that hearty laugh, and always finding the good in you. She was a person you could lean on and ask for advice. A more dedicated friend will be hard to find."

"The two things that I can say about Dolores are that she was a very intelligent and articulate woman who was very comfortable asserting her opinion, and there were moments where her military background was quite evident," said fellow trustee Jane Rubinstein. "But when she would talk about the kids ... the time spent with the kids and putting programs and services and facilities in place for the kids, she would alternate between being the assertive, protective mother protecting her brood and a very kind person with a twinkle in her eye and a smile in her heart. It was all the pieces of Dolores, the concern and humanity and the confidence in how things should be done. That epitomized her work on the board and her continuing work, particularly at Woodward Parkway."

"When I first met Dolores Saxton, I found it amazing that I kept bumping into this 'elderly' woman at so many of the club activities where I was involved. The Board of Ed, the school district's SHARED Decision team at Woodward Parkway, Breakfast Rotary, Read with a Rotarian at the Farmingdale Library, and Community Summit - just a few places we would meet. Little did I know that these activities were only scratching the surface of where Dolores Saxton spent her time. There was her passion for the Gift of Life organization, her book writing company, a eucharistic minister with the Catholic church, presenter at nursing workshops and conferences throughout the country and her trips all over the world with her friends and great nieces and nephews. Elderly! Forget it - she was a dynamo with double the energy than woman half her age!" said fellow board member Tina Diamond.

"She was a woman 'ahead of her times' - doing it 'her way' as she lived life to the fullest with passion and integrity. I will miss her but am very glad to have known such a great lady," Diamond said.

Rubinstein noted that Dr. Saxton's constant frustrations with odd numbers became an ongoing joke between the board members.

"It became her mantra to just 'round if off' because when we would deal with various budgetary numbers ... and it would calculate to some odd number with dollars and cents, it frustrated her to no end. She viewed it as this sloppy inconvenience," she said. "It became a running joke and jest amongst us as we would do our budgeting, do negotiations [and] talk about money because it came to the point where all the rest of us would say 'and now for Dolores' and we'd all go 'just round it off!' So she brought a recurring theme of levity as we sometimes dealt with serious money issues."

Rubinstein further noted that Dr. Saxton became a member of the board for the right reasons, to benefit the children of Farmingdale, and always made her opinion clear.

"She made herself heard and she made herself known. There are so many places and times in communities where people come to a board of education with an agenda. Dolores didn't carry any of that with her. Her agenda was good education, good services [and] meeting the kids' needs. That clearly played out in her term," she said. "There was an integrity to her purpose as well as to the way in which she functioned. And God bless, we should all have the energy that she had that point in her life because she accomplished and did so much. For many, many reasons, she's a role model worth respecting and worth remembering."

A past president of the Farmingdale Breakfast Rotary, Dr. Saxton took the Gift of Life Program to heart. She served on the program's board of directors for the Rotary, which helped raise funds necessary to sponsor children in need of medical treatment their families could not afford. She took great pride in being able to help youngsters in need, noting that one can't ask for anything better than knowing that they may have saved the life of a child.

Friends will remember Dr. Saxton as an avid traveler who would go on trips to places such as Alaska, London and tropical islands with her grand-nieces and nephews. Many will also remember her as a true fan of the New York Mets baseball team, and as a very avid teddy bear collector. In fact, Dr. Saxton attended a teddy bear convention annually and soon after her retirement began working on a price guide for teddy bear collectors.

In her honor, the Farmingdale community is planning a baseball game for the avid fan, scheduled to take place at Citibank Park in Islip on Sept. 2, beginning at 7 p.m. The event is titled "Keep the Ball Rolling: The Dr. Dolores Saxton Memorial Gift of Life Night" and is being sponsored by the Farmingdale Breakfast Rotary. Whatever money is raised from ticket sales will go toward the Gift of Life program in her name.

"As a member of Gift of Life foundation, she gave it her all. She would raise the money through the sale of her teddy bears, sometimes having us dress them and selling them so some child could have the chance to live, something we all take for granted," Vitale said. "We will continue that tradition through the Breakfast Rotary Club having Dr. Dolores Saxton Day at the Long Island Duck's game every year, hoping to raise enough money to continue her quest."

All tickets for the event must be purchased by June 30. For information or to reserve tickets, contact Anthony Vitale at 420-0740 or Tom Sabellico at 454-0021.

When she retired from the board of education, Dr. Saxton said that more than anything, she will miss the friendships she had made. Now she will be forever remembered as a wonderful educator, volunteer and, most of all, a friend.