Doris Moss, a longtime Great Neck resident who led her co-op board for many years and remained active in her building’s affairs, died peacefully at home on Oct. 26. She was two weeks shy of her 100th birthday.
Born in Manhattan on Nov. 9, 1916, she was the widow of the late Irving Link Moss, who died in 1971. She grew up in Borough Park, Brooklyn, the daughter of Wolf Frank and Sarah Kowalsky Frank. She graduated from Erasmus Hall High School and New York University’s School of Commerce. She married in 1944. With her husband, she moved to Rockville Centre in 1954, where they raised their children Vicki and Brian, who survive her.
Doris was a smart, thoughtful woman who voiced opinions forthrightly on many topics. Before moving to Grace Avenue in Great Neck in 1977 and when women lawyers were a rarity, she worked for many years as a paralegal. She was well-known in New York courthouses, where she deftly maneuvered through the bureaucracy to handle filings and paperwork.
She learned to drive at age 16 and often recalled driving her father to his office on West 42nd Street in Manhattan. She drove her own car until age 95.
In Rockville Centre, she loved her garden and yard, and neighbors were not surprised to see her nurturing her plants at all hours. In Great Neck, she was involved in the restoration of her building’s now lush garden. Her homes were filled with plants—from which she would take cuttings and start the new plants that she loved to grow. She was also active in the local Democratic party and, until recently, served on election days as a poll inspector.
She was an avid learner, taking up bridge in later life and playing several competitive games a week. She played her last hand in December. She started using a computer at age 92.
The youngest and last surviving sibling among six brothers and sisters, she was tough and strong and worked hard at keeping her family, including distant relatives and her late husband’s family, together. She was much loved.
Besides her children, Vicki White of Buffalo Grove, IL, and her husband, Sandy, and Brian Moss of North Salem, NY, and his wife, Trish, she is survived by grandchildren, Lon White and his wife, Shari, Jared White and his wife, Kathy, and Caroline, Ben and Lucy Moss; and her great-grandchildren, Evan and Noah White.
