Dorothy Helen Meyer

Dorothy Helen Meyer (Dusty) slipped her earthly bonds to join her dearly departed on Oct. 6, 2016, age 90.

Dusty was born to Gladys and Fredrick Albrecht in Milwaukee Wisconsin on November 1st 1925. Born shortly after WWI, she lived through the great depression, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and all the other conflicts and tragedies of modern times. But, also during this long period, some of the world’s greatest accomplishments were achieved. Dusty stayed quietly positive of mans’ accomplishments and also celebrated her family and friends’ successes.

During her long life, Dusty lived and loved to share many of her experiences and travel adventures.
One such early memory was scavenging old wooden paving blocks with her brother Gil to burn for heating the family home during the depression. They would also collect and saw up fallen trees used for heat. At age 10 she entered and won a couple drawing contests, that helped her family’s budget during the lean years. Her dad worked as an architect in Milwaukee and was paid in Script during the depression, so any extra money made by family members helped pay the bills.

At 12 years of age she won an art scholarship and after regular school and on Saturdays took art and design lessons with people twice her age. Seems that in order to keep her occupied while he had to watch a young Dorothy, Dad had given her paper and pencil and directed her to draw what she saw around her. This started Dorothy’s lifelong love of the visual arts, she also developed a love of the violin around this age and played in a 75 piece performing and competition orchestra. Dusty make money doing odd jobs such as sewing skirts for local women to support her many developing hobbies.

She gave birth to her beloved son Wayne in 1943 after marrying his father John Bracke. Dorothy left high school and they moved to Arizona while he served his time in the US ARMY AIR FORCE during the war. By her accounts this was an adventurous good time in her life, and she would tell stories about befriending the local sheriff who helped her underbid the town “snob” for her and Johns first car with which she learned to drive, or confronting and semi taming a wild young mountain lion.

After returning to the Milwaukee area Dorothy picked up her high School studies and obtained a GED after which she studied at the University of Illinois and Wright Jr. College of Chicago. She met and married Roland Meyer in 1952 when they both were 26 years old. He adopted Wayne who took the last name Meyer and adopted two other children. During this time Dusty worked at General Motors as an aviation electronics test person for Air Force tracking equipment, sold furniture, worked for a business couple in the interior design industry, and branched off to her own interior design business. Being the busy person she was, she also was taking fencing lessons to stay in shape. Eventually she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Education in 1966 from Queens College of NY making the deans’ list, then taught full time High School Art in NJ and Nanuet, NY High School and middle school, and younger ages for the next 20 years until retirement in 1988, much loved and sorely missed by faculty and students. She was 63 years old at the time. While teaching full time Middle school she also received a Master of Arts degree awarded by Paterson State College in 1969 at the age of 44. She was a member of Gamma Sigma Sigma sorority.

In 1988-89, after settling affairs in NJ, Dusty moved to Washington State to be close to family. She drove cross country with a friend in her trusty Toyota wagon. Her and son Wayne lived in Port Orchard for the past 25 years where she jumped into community activities. She ran for a commissioner slot, was active in promoting sane local development, with an eye to sustainable growth, and environmental impacts. Dorothy continued her lifelong desire to travel and study art all around the world and visited many new places. She was often accompanied by her trusty travel companion, her sister Betty. She also stayed as an active member of the Kitsap Artists Association until her health prevented her from doing so. Dusty will be sorely missed by all those whose lives she had touched, from the clerks at the local supermarkets, to all her artist friends, neighbors, and most of all those of us who knew her best, her family. She is preceded in death by her sister Phyllis Twogood, brother Gilbert Albrecht, and her much loved son Wayne Meyer.
May she rest in peace

In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to:
South Kitsap Artist Association
C/O Roy Carr
6805 N Van Decar Rd SE
Port Orchard, WA 98367