Meeder

Dorothy Jean Meeder, 88, of Gibsonia went home Friday to the Lord.

Born in Mars on Sept. 8, 1925, she was the daughter of the late DeWitt and Dorothy Forsythe Kennedy.

Dorothy was valedictorian of her Mars High School class, and of the 1946 Class at Geneva College, where she earned a degree in education with a Latin minor.

She married Howard Meeder in 1946, and they have lived in Gibsonia all of their married life.

Dorothy was a substitute teacher for Mars High School during the years that she raised her three boys, Robert, Donald and John. She later managed the HoDot Spot, a pizza shop the family started under Rob’s leadership in 1970. After the shop was sold in 1977, she assumed the role of office manager at the Nationwide Insurance Agency in Zelienople that Rob had established. She later became a broker there.

She was a very active, lifelong member of the Mars Presbyterian Church, where she had been an elder, had sang in the choir and taught Sunday school. She also was a member of the Mars Women’s Club for more than 60 years, serving as president and treasurer for several years. She was an avid bridge player and was coordinator of several weekly card clubs at the Saint Barnabas Retirement Village, where she and Howard moved in 2009. Dorothy was loved by all who knew her, and she will be dearly missed.

Above all, Dorothy was devoted to her family.

She is survived by her husband of 67 years, Howard; her son, Don and his wife, Joan, and their three children, John, Emily and Cathrine, and her son, John and his wife, Anne, and their two children, Ashley and Benjamin. Dorothy’s son Robert preceded her, but she also is survived by Robert’s son, Joshua and his son, Christian, and also Rob’s daughter, Jessi and her husband, Rob. Dorothy also is survived by her brother, Robert Kennedy and his family, and her brother, Thomas Kennedy and his wife, Pam.

MEEDER — The friends of Dorothy Jean Meeder, who passed away Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, were received Sunday at the McDonald-Aeberli Funeral Home, 238 Crowe Ave., Mars. The service was at 10:30 a.m. today at the Mars United Presbyterian Church, 232 Crowe Ave. Mars, with the Rev. Nathan Esser, pastor, officiating. Burial was in Dutilh Church Cemetery, Cranberry Township.

Memorial donations may be made to the Mars United Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 805, Mars, PA 16046.

Directions and condolences are available at www.mcdonald-aeberli.com.