In memory of Dorothy ElderdiceAuthor of the memorial page is Cemetery Manager

Many of Westminster’s older citizens still remember this dynamic woman who left a legacy of service to her community and to mankind’s most cherished ideals – peace, freedom, and civil rights.

She lived through two world wars as well as the era of women’s suffrage and knew precisely the causes she would champion throughout her long life. At the age of five, Dorothy and her family arrived in Westminster where her father became president of Westminster Theological Seminary, a Methodist Protestant institution. Although a life-long Methodist and product of a strict upbringing, Dorothy kicked over the traces to become a promoter of many progressive causes, sometimes

to the consternation of her family.

Her elocution training and early interest in theater led to her appointment as an instructor at the Seminary. That job, as a teacher of speech and religious drama, became full-time in 1927, and she kept it until she retired in 1951. Meanwhile, she wrote and directed numerous pageants that were performed locally and even abroad. They might involve a hundred or more participants. She also amassed a huge costume collection which was used by local theater groups and townspeople. Dorothy was a fixture in Westminster, walking wherever she went around town because she never drove a car. Even in old age, she seemed young, as this photo of her at a Western Maryland College sports event in 1974 attests. One of her former students wrote the following tribute at the time of her funeral five years later: “In spite of her age, Miss Elderdice was a young person in her mind, always open to ideas and new things.”