Dorothy Ditter Gondos Beers, a former AU professor, died of pneumonia last month at a retirement home in Fairfax, Va., at the age of 95.
Beers taught undergraduate and graduate history for 27 years at the University, The Washington Post reported. She served as chair of the history department and chair of women from 1949 to 1953.
Beers retired in 1974 but continued her commitment to AU. Beers received the Presidential Award 10 years later for her involvement in the University's development.
According to The Washington Post, Thomas V. DiBacco, a former student of Beers and later a professor at the school, wrote in a 1984 issue of an AU campus magazine that "over the years [her students] gave her nicknames such as 'The Great Mother,' or 'The Proper Lecturer,' the latter because she prepared so thoroughly for her classes and chose her words so carefully."
Beers also immersed herself in activities in her community. She volunteered for Meals on Wheels and was president of the United Methodist Women for Northern Virginia.
At her 90th birthday, an affair that included more than 100 people, Beers said, "To achieve the age of 90 is not a goal one plans for. It just happens, like falling in love"
