Dorothy lived on a farm with her folks and four sisters in Castleton, Indiana. She graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis in 1941 and attended Butler University in Indianapolis before completing her physical therapy degree on a March of Dimes scholarship at Columbia University in New York City in 1946.
After graduation she worked as a physical therapist and treated polio patients at Los Angeles County Hospital and Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena Calif., spending summers working at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute in Georgia.
From the choir loft at First Methodist Church in Pasadena she admired a handsome usher, and in 1951 she married Caltech doctoral student Francis Haskins. The newlyweds spent part of a year at the University of Texas in Austin and moved to Lincoln in 1952, where her husband was on the UNL faculty until his death in 2021. Dorothy briefly worked as a physical therapist at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lincoln before their expanding brood put an end to her outside employment.
Dorothy was a member of Eastridge Presbyterian Church, Kappa Alpha Theta, UNL Ceres Club, UNL Newcomers Club, and UNL Faculty Women’s Club where she served as Vice President. She endured thirteen years of PTA at Eastridge Elementary School.
With the departure of her four kids, she spent many years volunteering at Bryan Memorial Hospital and traveling to visit friends and relatives. Dorothy loved staying in touch by phone with her family, neighbors, and extended community, often calling nieces, nephews, and grandchildren to check in. Dorothy and Francis were married for 69 years.
Family members include daughters Dr. Ann Haskins Olney (Dr. Richard F. Olney), Omaha, Katherine Haskins, Lincoln; sons John Haskins (Linda Stephenson), Sequim Wash., William Haskins (Deborah Stout), Sacramento Calif.; grandchildren Gwendolyn Olney (Scott Peters), Laurel Stephenson Haskins, Jocelyn Olney Harrison (Ross Harrison), Jack Francis Stephenson Haskins, and Jude David Olney (Rachel Salyers). Dorothy was preceded in death by her husband, parents and four sisters.
A Memorial Service will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 2, 2022 in the Arbor Room at the UNL East Campus Student Union. Free parking is available in unmarked stalls in any adjacent parking lot.
Memorials to UNL Foundation, Eastridge Presbyterian Church, Bryan Hospital Volunteer Services.