Beatrice Dobie

After nearly 92 extraordinary years spent with family and friends, Beatrice Tormey Dobie died peacefully at home on January 4, 2014. Born in Syracuse, New York to James George and Beatrice Reparata on March 6, 1922, Bea was the middle daughter in a family of six before losing both of her parents and two sisters before she was 16. She and her brother Joe were raised by their maternal grandparents and enjoyed summers spent on Cazenovia Lake with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and 27 first cousins. Bea defied expectations of the day by attending and graduating from the University of Toronto in 1944 with a bachelor's degree in English. After college, she moved to New York City where she began her forty-year career with Time Incorporated. She started as a part-time proof reader, became a reporter, and then embarked upon her greatest professional challenge by helping to found Time-LIFE Books. Bea set up the research department there and served as its chief before ending her career as Vice President and Director of Personnel. She had the most fun as a reporter and foreign correspondent in London for LIFE Magazine, where she indulged her love of Ireland and of travel, cultivating life-long friendships centered around the Abbey Theatre, Groom's Hotel, and the Rose of Tralee Festival. After retiring in 1982, Bea volunteered with Good Shepherd Catholic Church and Good Shepherd Housing and Family Services, sources of cherished friendships. She also traveled extensively, most often to her family's stomping grounds in Henderson Harbor, New York and frequently with former colleagues on trips planned by the Time-Life Alumni Society. She is survived by her brother's seven children – Kathleen, Maureen (Michael Goldfarb), Chris (Anna), Jennifer, Natalie, Fred, Julia – and their eleven children – Ira (Joan and children Olivia and James), Eva and Anna Goldfarb; Amanda and Cassandra Meadows; Joseph, Laura, and Michael Dobie; and Franchesca, Tony, and Elena Alvarado-Dobie – as well as dozens of loving relatives and friends. She will be sorely missed as a fourth for euchre. Calling on Saturday, January 11, at St. Monica Catholic Church, 6131 N. Michigan Rd., Indianapolis, IN 46228 at 11 a.m. followed by a funeral mass at noon. There will also be a memorial service in Alexandria, VA, in February, date pending.