Neighbors

A series of profiles on some of the extraordinary people at the Lake and those who have made Lake Barcroft an extraordinary place to live. If you know someone who should be profiled, please contact Paula Rothenberg.

 

Dorothy Werner

 

HOME STORY: “My husband was a Foreign Service officer and we were being transferred back to Washington after living in several places abroad. Our Realtor brought me and my sons here one Sunday, while my husband was in Karachi, Pakistan. It was one of those glorious days in October. When we saw the Lake and the beaches, my sons said we need to live here. We’ve lived in the same house for 34 years.”

FAMILY: Her husband of 53 years, Doug, died May 19. One son was born in Stockholm and the other was born in Vienna, which Dorothy calls “my idea of heaven.” Son Michael lives in this area, and son Douglas is an engineer in Fremont, Calif., where he is married to a physician. They are the parents of Dorothy’s one grandchild.

CAREER: “I was a career woman before I got married. I started out as a journalist and then moved into public relations. The men were coming back from World War II then and it was hard for a woman to get a job in journalism. I enjoyed public relations and did well at it. Then I got married. In those days, diplomats’ wives were not allowed to work. Once I became adjusted to that, I loved being with the Foreign Service. I felt so fortunate to live in different places long enough to get to know the culture and the people. After the children were grown, I went back to work. I took a job in public relations with the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. I thought it would be a stepping stone to something else, but I stayed there nearly 20 years, until I retired. I felt it was such important work because the Authority was involved in land-use planning, saving land for future generations and providing recreation for people who wouldn’t have access to it otherwise.”

COMMUNITY GARDEN: “The Community Garden is my baby. When I was president of the Woman’s Club in 1996, another member died and her daughter requested that funds be given to a garden in Florida. That gave me the idea that we should have a garden here. It started out to be a memorial garden, but some people objected to that as a limiting view. So it has become a place to celebrate weddings and anniversaries, and a reflective, beautiful place where people can go to rest and reflect and enjoy. I knew something about creating a garden from my work with the Park Authority, but I was just the facilitator. We would have no garden if it were not for the late Ernie Rauth. And Stuart and Margaret Finley were so helpful, much of it through the WID. David Alne also did a quite lot. They were some of the many, many people who brought this about.”

WHAT DOES LAKE BARCROFT MEAN TO YOU? “This is a real community, not just a housing development. I am so grateful for the friends that I have here and for the outpouring of support and help that I received after my husband died. People have been so kind. I could never give back all that I’ve been given. But I’ll try.”

 

— Gloria Pearlstein, Barcroft News Staff