Before Dottie was my friend, she was my tutor at what was then Redhill Technical College. Like many young women at home with children, I sought stimulation through part-time courses in subjects that interested me. Dottie's afternoon class in A Level English literature was so stimulating that I took it three times. She was a remarkable teacher, not just in the way she taught, but in her genuine concern for her students as people. She was very good at getting people to think, not just because her own interest ranged far beyond the subject she taught, but also because of her sometimes infuriating habit of craftily changing tack if you challenged her argument. You needed to think very fast to pin her down.

Later, I had the privilege of being invited, along with my husband, to the famous parties that she and her beloved husband Archie gave at the beautiful home they had created together, and also to be invited to dinner parties. Dottie was an excellent cook, and many of the ingredients came from Archie's carefully-tended garden.

Dottie occasionally confided in me that she felt she had never fulfilled her own possibilities. While her talents and intelligence might have opened other doors, I think the many people whose own lives she touched and changed through her teaching would agree that hers was a successful and well-lived life and that they were lucky to have known this remarkable woman.