Dorothy B. Taaffe, 99, past director of the American Red Cross Office of International Services, long-time Washington, DC volunteer, and World War II military hospital aide, died at home in Washington, DC on October 23, 2013 of cardiovascular disease.
From 1974 until her retirement in 1980, Dorothy Taaffe served as Director of the Office of International Services for the American Red Cross, which is responsible for coordination of Red Cross humanitarian response to worldwide natural or manmade disasters and to international incidents involving American citizens.
Dorothy Taaffe was born in Albany, NY on June 9, 1914 to James Tracey Taaffe, a lawyer in private practice, and Marie Bernardi Taaffe. Dorothy earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1936 from The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY and an MA from Columbia University in 1939, after which she taught speech and drama at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana.
The American Red Cross recruited Miss Taaffe in 1943 for therapeutic recreation service with patients in military hospitals. Her success led to her promotion to recreation supervisor, then to recreation consultant responsible for recreation therapy in all military hospitals in he Western States. In 1950, on a year’s leave, she taught courses on hospital recreation at the University of Minnesota before returning to the Red Cross.
In 1958, she was only the second woman to be elected President of the American Recreation Society, the national professional association of over 6,000 recreation workers from all types of organizations.
During her long ARC career, Miss Taaffe’s work was characterized by innovative service programs, such as therapeutic recreation with hospitalized World War II servicemen and women and international youth friendship exchanged with Latin America and Africa. In 1962, she completed a comprehensive study of the role of youth in Red Cross and was appointed as Associate Director of Red Cross Youth. Working closely with schools and colleges in the US, she coordinated international service projects, such as youth-to-youth outreach, and led international exchange youth missions. She maintained lively correspondence with some of those youth for the rest of her life. This work also resulted in her being named President Dwight Eisenhower’s Council for Youth Fitness.
East in 1973, when demands on that office were very high, she became Director in 1974, and her office was responsible for American Red Cross response to international situations such as natural disasters, wars, refugees, missing persons and hostage crises.
Her office worked closely with the US State Department and the two Geneva-based international Red Cross organizations, the “International Committee of the Red Cross” and the then “League of Red Cross Societies” and with more than 100 national societies to resolve often delicate international problems such as reunion of families or deliverance of special of urgent messages in times of war and peace.
She often told of Red Cross assistance in delivery of special allergy medicine to an American woman serving as a volunteer on a Pacific island.
Miss Taaffe also represented the Red Cross at international meetings, headed the US delegation to European Red Cross Seminar on Dissemination of the Geneva Convention in Warsaw, Poland in 1977, and traveled to China in 1980 on a Red Cross goodwill mission. Miss Taaffe was proud of her office’s role in advocating an international policy for the education and training of women in developing countries, which in 1977 was passed at an international meeting by Red Cross/Red Crescent societies of 107 countries.
Following her retirement in 1980, Miss Taaffe served for one year as American Red Cross representative to UNICEF and the United Nations, helping to establish policies for children and youth throughout the world. Afterwards, in her adopted city, Washington, DC, she continued her service to others in need in volunteer leadership capacities with the American Red Cross, Catholic Charities, SOME (So Others Might Eat), Iona Senior Services, Christ House, and others.
She has received numerous awards, including lifetime achievement wards from her alma mater and the Order of Merit from Archdiocese of Washington, DC.
In her retirement years, along with her volunteer commitments, Miss Taaffe incorporated her nature photography interests and love of New York’s Adirondack Mountains into a successful Adirondack postcard business. Her postcards are sill sold throughout the Old Forge region of New York. The town of Inlet, NY was her second home and she and her sister Miriam Taaffe were summer fixtures there for the last several decades.
She often said she was grateful for a wonderful life with many exciting rewards including a “thank you” from Emperor Hirohito of Japan when he visited the American Red Cross and a handshake from Albert Einstein – plus the opportunity to swim all seven seas!
Dorothy Taffee is survived by her devoted sister, Miriam T. Taaffe of Albany, NY, by seven nieces and nephews (Tracey Manning of Columbia, MD, Barbara Paulauskis of Gaithersburg, MD, James T. Taaffe III of Fairbanks, AK, Margaret Cambone of McLean, VA, Christopher Taaffe of Oakland, CA Thomas Taaffe of Vienna, VA and Patricia Lushina of Vienna, VA), and by her many grandnieces and grandnephews, for whom she was a beloved aunt and inspirational role model.
