Teacher and poet extraordinaire Dorothy (Dot) V. Gray passed away June 29, 2016 at the age of 88. She is survived by Debbie and Jim Nickels, Fair Haven NJ, Karen Gray and Bruce Ferguson, Cleveland OH, Candice Gray, Allentown PA, and sister Marjorie McCann, Melbourne, FL. She is the proud grandmother of William Gray, Meggie Gray Buck, Kara and Kate Nickels, and Eric and Adam Ferguson. Great Grandson Connor Buck and his father Lucas Buck joined the family in 2015.

She is predeceased by her beloved husband William F. Gray, Sr., her son, William F. Gray, Jr., parents Dorothy and Joseph Van Cleaf and sisters Audrey Acerra and Jean Hurley.

Dot graduated from Ocean Township Elementary School in 1940, Asbury Park High School in 1945 and Monmouth Junior College in 1947. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the New Jersey State Teachers College, Montclair, NJ in 1949. Dot earned a Master of Science in Education, Summa Cum Laude, from Monmouth College in 1977. She received her New Jersey Supervisor/Reading Specialist certification in 1977 and Principal/Supervisor certification in 1978.

Dot was not only a student in the Ocean Township School District but spent 30 years there as an educator. She began in 1949 as a fifth grade teacher in Wanamassa School. As a permanent substitute in 1964-65 she taught in every school in the district. She spent longer terms as a 7-8th grade English teacher in Oakhurst School and a language arts teacher in the Ocean Township School on Dow Ave.

The highlight of her career was the creation of the Intensified Reading Center in the Ocean Township Junior High/Intermediate School. The center evolved from her Master's Thesis and was described in various publications including the Middle School Journal and the International Reading Directory. The center was created in 1976 with funds from the PTA and exists to this day following her philosophy that every student at every reading level deserves the chance to improve their reading ability. Students volunteer for the program and are challenged to develop their full potential for efficient reading.

Dot's teaching also included an adjunct faculty position in the Department of Education at Monmouth College. She was able to bring her college students to her Reading Center thereby combining teaching of intermediate students with training of future teachers.

Following her retirement from teaching, Dot became an active poet and combined her love of travel with poetry in the book Our Own Special Country; Poems in Celebration of the Fifty States published in 2007. She and her husband Bill, often with her sister Margie, visited all fifty states. They avoided the big cities to explore the countryside. Each state provided a unique inspiration for her poetry.

Dot's writing also included many published feature stories from restaurant reviews to history articles and travel chronicles. Her own life was included in stories such as It must have been a Miracle about her husband Bill's path from a life threatening, paralyzing stroke to winning second place in a Waterman Village putting tournament just 17 months after the stroke.

Dot was an avid birder and scrabble player. She was active and beloved as a community member wherever she lived from Ocean Township NJ, to the Villages in Lady Lake FL. and finally at Waterman Village, Mount Dora FL.

A celebration of life will be held at the Garden of Life Fellowship Hall in Waterman Village June, 30, 2016 at 10:30 am. Funeral services will be held at the Church of St Anselm, 1028 Wayside Road, Tinton Falls, NJ on July 30, 2016 at 12 noon.

In lieue of flowers, donations are requested to the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research at https://www.michaeljfox.org/get-involved/donation2.php?pg=37