Gabriella Haws Woese ("Gay") died peacefully on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, at her home at Lenbrook in Atlanta. She was 93 years old.
Gay was born in Stamford, Conn., on Feb. 18, 1931, to Henry Ernst Haws and Gabriella Spooner Dunn. She grew up in neighboring Greenwich, where she spent many happy hours sailing on Long Island Sound. She attended Greenwich Country Day School, Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Conn., and Smith College, where she received a degree in history. While at Smith, she met her future husband, Carl Richard Woese, who was attending Amherst College. They married in 1953, and moved to New Haven, Conn., so that her husband could attend Yale. While there, Gay worked on the editorial board of the Yale newspaper.
After her husband's matriculation, they moved to Schenectady, N.Y., where they started a family by adopting two children, two years apart. In 1964, Gay and her family moved to Urbana, Illi., as Carl accepted a professorship at the University of Illinois. For 49 years, Gay raised a family and maintained a household in Urbana. During these years Gay also maintained a summer home in Chilmark.
Her interests were varied, and included participation and memberships in various environmental and wildlife conservation organizations in both Illinois and Massachusetts. She was an avid birder and reader, and was very fond of jigsaw and crossword puzzles. Over the years she often exercised her editorial skills by assisting her husband with his papers and publications.
When her husband died in 2012, she moved to Atlanta to be near her two children, who both reside there. She was preceded in death by her siblings, a brother, Robert Haws of Hawaii, and a sister, Jean Brown of Princeton, N.J. She is survived by a daughter, Gabriella, and a son, Robert, both of Atlanta; a niece, Dr. Deborah Carver of New York City, nieces, Robin Kaimikaua and Cynthia Haws, both of Hawaii, namesake niece, Gay Miller of New York City, and a nephew, Peter Miller of California.
She will be interred next to her husband at Abel's Hill Cemetery in Chilmark. A family service will be held graveside at a time yet to be determined. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Massachusetts Audubon Society, online at bit.ly/MA_Donations. Arrangements are being made by HM Patterson and Son, Oglethorpe Hill Chapel, 4550 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30319 (404-261-3510).