Doris A. Singer

DORIS A. SINGER

ALFRED-Doris a. Singer, who worked as a laboratory assistant, college admissions officer and educator, died Monday (Jan. 6, 2014) at St. James Mercy Hospital in Hornell. The former longtime Charles Village resident was 92.
The daughter of an automobile dealer and a homemaker, Doris Anne Fornaci was born in Baltimore and raised in a home on East 33rd St. She was a 1938 graduate of Marywood, a Scranton, Pa., boarding school.
During World War II, she enlisted in the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve, better known as SPARS, where she attained the rank of Quartermaster.
After the war, she earned a bachelor’s degree from McCoy College, the John Hopkins University’s evening school. She earned two master’s degrees from Hopkins, one in writing and the other in Romance languages, in 1950.
In 1951, she married Sidney Singer. They lived in Charles Village, Gardenville and Mount Washington before moving in the 1970s to Okemos, Mich., when her husband was named to head the Michigan Civil Service. She worked as a project manager for the state of Michigan, overseeing a grant.
She earned a master’s degree in business administration from Michigan State University. After her divorce in the mid-1980s, she returned to Charles Village.
During her lifetime, Ms. Singer had worked as a laboratory assistant for DuPont, in admissions at Hopkins and as an English teacher at Baltimore City Community College.
She was also an active member of the First Unitarian Universalist Church in downtown Baltimore, where she managed its bookstore and served as church treasurer and a member of its investment committee.
Ms. Singer, who in recent years lived with a daughter in Alfred, was an avid reader of French poetry and mysteries, and had written a novel, poetry and short stories. She was also a world traveler.
Surviving are five daughters, Rosanne Singer of Takoma Park, Sandra Singer of Alfred, Gina S. Cooper of Fremont, Mich., Deborah S. Howard of Albany and Barbara J. Singer of Athens, Ohio; and 13 grandchildren.
A memorial service was held in the parish hall of her church in Baltimore.
Arrangements are with the Bishop & Johnson Funeral Home, Inc. in Hornell.