Focused, with warmth, a radiant personality, her Harvard-educated command of a corporate board room an envy to Warren Buffet, still open to all,  loving, and who would be the first to cast aside, to  "pooh pooh" the plaudits written here.

    But the facts stand.  And Dottie is known and loved by literally thousands today.  Especially by her family.

    And she'll never to be forgotten as someone who'se lived the belief America's most admired virtue is to open our hearts, to encourage the best in others, to  sacrifice for the less fortunate, all while traveling millions of miles by plane and the series of cars she's worn out more tires on than a race car driver.

    In simple, practical ways and through strategic grand plans that have impacted America's four corners and its very heartbeat, Dottie Johnson has worked with others to strengthen those ties that bind and give hope to us as a nation, and as a world of caring people capable, willing to help each other regardless of religion, politics or the color of our skin. 

    Which is the true meaning and value of that 10-dollar word called "philanthropy."

   Thank you, Dottie.

Photo and text by Jim Richmond