Dorothy Nason Kilcoyne

On November 10, 2021, Dorothy Nason Kilcoyne (aka “Boots”) started a whole new adventure, leaving her battle-scarred body behind to try flying for the first time.

She blazes a trail ahead of the man she married on the way to Home Depot, Stephen “Killer” Kilcoyne, six children: Maggie Agurkis, Benj Lipchak, Paul Lipchak, Patrick Kilcoyne, Marleen Kilcoyne, Dianna Ambach, and all their partners, her grandchildren Teagan, Carissa, Peter, Felicity, Harry, Owen, and Kate, her sister Sherry, her brother Steve, as well as many nieces, nephews, and beloved friends.

“Dosh” was born the youngest of three in Springs, South Africa, in 1951, to Lex and Rhoda Nason. In 1964, she arrived in the US by boat to become a Vermonter (who, ironically, hated winter). After four years of midnight snacking on contraband sticks of butter at Foxhollow Boarding School, she backpacked across Europe before eventually landing in Boston. There, she met her first husband, Mike Lipchak, graduated from Boston University, and moved to suburban Natick where they raised their family.

From Barbara, Boo, and Gracie to Tilly and Lacey, some of Dorothy’s best friends were dogs, and they enjoyed their privileged position in her world, flaunting the shotgun seat in the car like a badge of honor or yapping protectively and unceasingly to the very end (and beyond). Her lifelong love of animals led to a move to Sterling: a dream fulfilled of a little farm with horses, dogs, cats, and chickens, trail rides, and forever friends. She parlayed her affinity for wearing work boots on the farm into a brief but successful career in carpentry, where she gained the confidence she would one day radiate while swinging giant boards around three stories in the air.

As He so often does, her God and Savior wisely gave Dorothy a fiercely independent nature and the drive to learn what she needed to stay one step ahead of ALS. In her forties, she reinvented herself as a certified occupational therapy assistant so she could help others maintain their autonomy. Little did she realize those same skills would prove critical to her decades later. Even a week before her death, Dosh was still capable of spending afternoons without assistance.

As a multi-faceted Woman of Mystery, she shook off the workaday world, first tearing up the roads on her Kawasaki, and then on the back of Killer’s ride. On one wild adventure in Florida, they fell in love with the unique and magical weirdness of the Lower Keys. They started their new life there with an old camper hand painted with fish and turtles (dubbed “the Hooch”) and eventually buying and fixing up their dream house in Ramrod—a favorite landing spot for family and friends when they couldn’t be together at the 140 Club.

Dorothy’s loved ones will be forever grateful for the indelible mark she made on all of us. Her wry humor and fortitude in the face of challenges will never be forgotten, nor her generous and compassionate nature. In the spirit of this generosity, in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Rapha International, a cause that really mattered to her, or to the ALS Association, a cause that truly matters to us. A public memorial service will be planned at a later date.

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