Obituary: Helen B. Dawson, Former Shelter Island Teacher, Dies at 94

Info via DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Homes

Helen B. Dawson, a former North Fork resident, died of pneumonia on Monday, Feb. 2 in hospice at a Phoenixville Hospital in Pennsylvania. She was 94.

Dawson was born to Frederick H. Barron and Florence E. Basset in Fairmont, West Virginia on Jan. 28, 1921.

Her family moved to Greenwich, New York in 1932 and she graduated from Greenwich High School as valedictorian in 1938.

In 1942, she received her Bachelor’s Degree as a teacher of business subjects from New York State College for Teachers in Albany.

From 1942 to 1949, Dawson taught business classes at Shelter Island High School. She married a former student, C. Austin Dawson, in 1949.

After the couple married, they moved to Granville and had three children before moving back to Long Island in 1967.

Dawson went back to teaching business in Shelter Island while her husband became director of guidance for the Southold School District.

Dawson was also the pianist/organist for the North Fork Baptist Church in Mattituck and treasurer, coordinator and teacher for the Pioneer Girls at the church.

Both Dawson and her husband were members of Gideons International, an association of Christian professional men and their wives, and held numerous offices on the local and state levels.

They also both led ministries for inmates at Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead.

The couple retired and moved to Pennsylvania in 2000. Austin passed away there in 2004 of Parkinson’s Disease.

Dawson continued to live there before moving into a personal-care until in August for circulatory problems in her legs and feet. She then moved into the nursing unit where she passed away in December.

Dawson is survived by two sons, Barron Austin Dawson, 61, and his wife, Bonita, of West Deptford, N.J., and Kenneth Eugene Dawson, 59, of Bethlehem, Pa., as well as a daughter, Mary Ellen Komarek, 57, and her husband, Robert, of Fishkill, N.Y. She is also survived by four grandchildren: Allyson and Brendan Komarek, Glenn R. Dawson (Barron) and Katherine H. Dawson (Kenneth).

Arrangements entrusted to DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Homes, Inc. are unknown at this time.

Gifts in Helen’s memory may be sent to: Eastport Bible Church, 386 Montauk Highway, Eastport, N.Y., 11941 or The Gideons International, P.O. Box 140800, Nashville, Tenn., 37214-0800, or Frederick Living, P.O. Box 548, Frederick, Pa., 19435.