Dorothy Ann Hay

Dorothy Ann Churchill Hay, 94, of Davidson, North Carolina died June 16, 2019 after several years of declining health.

Born December 29, 1924 to Harry Strong and Helen Herrick Churchill in Chicago, she grew up in Winter Park, Florida where she attended Rollins College for two years before transferring to the University of North Carolina from which she graduated in 1946. There in Chapel Hill she met Samuel Hay whom she married in 1949.

In 1953 Dr. and Mrs. Hay moved to Toccoa, Georgia where they resided until 2002 when they moved to The Pines in Davidson. In Toccoa Mrs. Hay devoted 26 years to teaching math in the Toccoa and Stephens County schools. Her excellence as a teacher of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus is attested by her having been selected as Star Teacher on several different occasions and by the notable success of her former students at university-level math. She conscientiously kept up to date in her own training, earning an MA degree from the University of Georgia while serving as full-time teacher. Following her retirement, Mrs. Hay served two terms as member of the Stephens County School Board, where she utilized her experience to promote educational standards based on reason. 

Mrs. Hay was an active member of the Presbyterian Church and took on numerous responsibilities for the church, serving as deacon, elder, church treasurer, and Sunday School teacher among many other roles. She served as president of Athens Presbytery and marched down Peachtree Street in 1983 as a delegate to the General Assembly at the reunification of northern and southern Presbyterians.

Dorothy Hay loved reading and gardening, and she was a fine swimmer, continuing in the pool well into her eighties. After retirement, she devoted countless hours to such charity projects as the local soup kitchen.

Mrs. Hay is survived by her husband of nearly seventy years, Sam Hay of Davidson, and her four children, Sam Jr., Dorothy Hay Kurtz, Fred Hay, and Dick Hay, as well as six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.