The obituary, shown below, was copied from
https://www.dailylocal.com/2008/06/19/dorothea-morse-of-kennett-twp/
(it may or may not still be available there)
Dorothea Morse of Kennett Twp
By Daily Local | dailylocal@dailylocal.com
UPDATED: August 20, 2021 at 5:19 AM EDT
Dorothea Cloud Morse, 90, of Kennett Township, June 6. She was the wife of the late Alfred Morse, who died in April.
Born in Philadelphia, she was the daughter of the late Willard Cloud and Mabel Keenan Cloud.
Mrs. Morse was highly respected and loved as a leader in civic issues in the Kennett area, as a Quaker leader, as a legal administrator, and as one dedicated to her family. In her last years, she suffered from Parkinson’s disease.
She grew up on her parents’ dairy farm, Sunstone Farm, in Kennett Township. She lived most of her adult life there in the historic Bernard Wiley Swedish log house, circa 1710. In 1997, she moved to Kendal at Longwood.
An outstanding student, she won five of the six awards given at her Kennett High School graduation in 1935. The first in her family to attend a four-year college, she graduated summa cum laude from Smith College. She was the top student of almost 300 U.S. students who were studying at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1937-1938. Her year studying in Paris was one of her fondest memories.
The Nazi shadow over France disrupted her plans for graduate work at the Sorbonne in 1939. She received a masters degree in French at Middlebury College, where she met her future husband, but World War II derailed her dream of becoming a college professor of French. While stationed in Hawaii, Dorothea and Alfred had their first of three children. After the war, they returned to Kennett Square, punctuated by three years in Arlington, Va. For almost 50 years, beginning in 1954, she performed services in income taxes, wills, trusts, and financial management, at the law offices at 211 E. State St. in Kennett Square.
She was deeply involved in community issues. She served on the Bayard Taylor Library Board for 37 years and upon her retirement in 1999, became the first recipient of the Dorothea C. Morse library award. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she chaired the Kennett Area Joint Action Committee, where she actively promoted affordable housing, particularly for the local African American community. She offered free legal help to countless people. She chaired Kennett Township’s Historical Commission, where she was instrumental in obtaining National historical status for Hamorton village. She was active for years on the township planning commission and with the Kennett Township Land Trust, to which she donated a conservation easement on the land that remained from the farm.
A lifelong Quaker and member of Hockessin Friends Meeting, she is remembered as an exceptional Quaker leader, who participated in and chaired numerous committees. In the 1980s, she was clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, the highest position in the largest U.S. Quaker body. In a delegation of U.S. religious leaders to the Soviet Union in 1985, she represented Quakerism. She was an advocate for justice and peace. Her tireless work and organizing skills strengthened Friends General Conference.
Over the years, Dorothea and Alfred traveled to many parts of the U.S. and the world. She was equally at home with down-to-earth or intellectual conversation, uproarious laughter at a joke, or presenting a cogent book report at an American Association of University Women meeting; she was equally capable of chairing a meeting or knitting an afghan blanket for one of her granddaughters. She was an inspiration to others through her integrity, competence, and dedication to the community. In 1985, she was named Citizen of the Year by the Southeastern Chester County Chamber of Commerce.
She is survived by her sister, Frances Cloud Taylor, of Crosslands retirement community in Pennsbury Township; sons David Morse of Kennett Square, Stephen Morse of Oakland, Calif., and Robert Morse of South Bend, Ind.; and four granddaughters.
A private memorial service will be held at Hockessin Meeting. A public celebration of her life will be held at the Kendal Auditorium, Saturday, Aug. 23 at 2 p.m.
Contributions may be made to the Bayard Taylor Memorial Library, 216 E. State St. Kennett Square, PA 19348, or to Friends General Conference, 1216 Arch St., 2B, Philadelphia, PA 19107.
Arrangements are being handled by the Kuzo & Grieco Funeral Home of Kennett Square.
To send an online condolence, go to www.griecofuneralhomes.com.
Originally Published: June 19, 2008 at 4:25 AM EDT