Doris Silverman

I have known Doris too long and too well to write something too formal. Instead, I will simply write what comes to mind when I think of Doris. Doris claims that I graded her undergraduate psychology exam papers when I was a teaching assistant at the City College of New York. If that is so, I have known Doris for many years — which is quite remarkable insofar as given her energy, attitude, and outlook, Doris does not seem to be old enough for me to have known her for that long. Not only have I known Doris for many years, but I have known all of her children, was a close friend of her deceased husband Lloyd, and am a good friend of Doris' long-time partner, Herb Dembitzer. In short, I think of Doris as a member of my extended family.

Doris is a remarkable person in a number of ways. If the character of one's children is, in some sense, a measure of a parent's own character and virtues, one's competence, decency, and values, for example, then Doris embodies these qualities. Every one of her four children is a wonderful and admirable person.

As Doris' friend, I have witnessed, and have been envious of, her amazing strength of character and capacity for equanimity in dealing with adversity. I don't know too many people who have shown the same resilience and grace under difficult circumstances.

Doris' laugh is distinctive for its full-heartedness and its ready availability. I can recall evenings at Doris' apartment or at Paul and Fran Lippmann's house in Stockbridge at the end of a day of the Rappaport-Klein meetings when Dave Wolitzky, Herb Dembitzer, and I would trade jokes for hours at a time, each joke punctuated by Doris' laughter, whether or not she had already heard the joke which, most of the time, she had. Doris was co-chair, with Paul Lippmann, of the Rapapport-Klein Study Group for 12 years between 2002 and 2014, having replaced Norbert Freedman and me. During that time, Doris (and Paul) succeeded in bringing such notables to the group as Beatrice Beebe, Phil Shav