The Independent Women’s Forum joins the vast community of people and institutions that mourn the death of Dorothy Donnelley Moller, an indefatigable and stalwart supporter of the values that made America great. Mrs. Moller died in her beloved adopted state of Arizona on Tuesday, June 12, 2007.
Dorothy Moller was a supporter of an amazing array of institutions that promoted patriotic ideals and the free market. She served on a mind-boggling number of boards, including the Falcon Foundation, which provides scholarships to the Air Force Academy, the trustees of Hillsdale College (which in 1997 awarded her the Honorary Degree of Humanitarian Service), and the Goldwater Institute.
One of her many beloved institutions was The 390th Museum in Tucson, Ariz., which was dedicated to preserving the heritage of the 390th Bombardment Group, which participated in more than 300 missions in World War II and was famed for its accuracy in bombing. With her second husband, Col. Joseph A. Moller, a prominent early aviator, she was an angel to the museum. She married Col. Moller after the death of her first husband, the late Thorne Donnelley of R. R. Donnelley & Sons of Chicago, with whom she moved to Paradise Valley, Ariz., in 1957.
“[S]he was a passionate and dedicated promoter of the vision for America our Founding Fathers laid out,” said Kevin Gentry, Vice President of Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. “Dorothy had a very clear sense of right and wrong, and she was not afraid to call the shots as she saw them. God bless her for it.”
“She was one of the nicest, most compassionate people I have ever met,” wrote Jason Barbour, director of development for the Young America’s Foundation, who works out of the Reagan Ranch Center. “She cared so much about the future of our country and the young people who will become those future leaders. Young America’s Foundation and the Reagan Ranch will always be grateful for her thoughtful generosity to our cause.”
An animal lover and supporter of the Arizona Humane Shelter, Mrs. Moller is also remembered as a role model who had a sense of fun.
“Her grace, dignity and love of American ideals would have made her a role model for me,” IWF Board Member Randy Kendrick, who served with Mrs. Moller on the board of the Goldwater Institute, recalled in a tribute. “But those fabulous hats! From the first moment I met Dorothy, they were an inspiration for living life with verve and flair.”