Rockville Centre loses one of a kind, Dot Zaiser
Active and devoted to schools, St. Mark's church and family
Dorothy May Patten Zaiser, 92, a lifelong resident of Rockville Centre, died on Feb. 22 after a brief illness.
The daughter of Ella and James Patten — her father played a large role in developing the village and served as its clerk — Zaiser was born on Sept. 26, 1918, in the front room of 21 Powell Ave., which was a working farm at the time. She attended the Morris School and South Side junior and senior high schools, both then in the building where South Side Middle School is now.
Zaiser, who was known as Dot, met her future husband, William Zaiser, at age 7. Their families were close friends.
In what would become a theme throughout her life, Dot was described as an “active” student in the 1936 edition of The Tower, her high school yearbook. A talented athlete, named the best in her class, she played varsity basketball for four years and was the team’s captain as a senior. She also took part in varsity swimming, field hockey and baseball, and was an accomplished archer. In her fourth year of the annual girls’ Red & Blue competition at South Side High School, she was captain of the Red team.
Zaiser’s academic and leadership abilities matched her skills in sports. She was a founding member of South Side’s National Honor Society chapter, and vice president of her class. She won a basketball scholarship to Arcadia University (known then as Beaver College).
Initially majoring in phys. ed., Zaiser graduated in 1940 with a degree in business administration. She remained active with her alma mater, and received its Mary Louise Armstrong Wolf Award for outstanding service to the college and community — the first of many awards she would receive.
After college she returned to Rockville Centre, and became a librarian at the public library.
On Dec. 27, 1942, she married William Zaiser, a petty officer in the Navy who shipped out three days later — seeing duty first on the destroyer USS Lansdale in the Atlantic and then on the battleship Iowa in the Pacific in World War II.
