BY ALBERT AMATEAU | Loving, selfless, and with a temper as short as her stature, Mae Doris Corrigan was remembered on Sun., Oct. 7 for her fierce devotion to her Chelsea neighborhood and her persistent advocacy of progressive Democratic Party politics.
More than a hundred friends, neighbors, and colleagues gathered at the Hudson Guild to pay tribute to Doris, who died July 23 at the age of 87.
The crowd included elected officials whose campaigns Doris promoted, Democratic Party volunteers with whom she worked for more than 35 years, and several of her nieces and nephews.
“Doris was a community center all on her own,” quipped Ken Jockers, executive director of Hudson Guild, host of the memorial event. “I would pass this conference room at the end of my day and there she’d be, holding another meeting. It made me think I should go back to my desk and put in another couple of hours.”
Tom Schuler, a fellow member of the Chelsea Reform Democratic Club who, along with Laura Morrison and Steven Skyles-Mulligan, took care of Doris during her final months, said, “She made us all better neighbors, better citizens, and better democrats. She was the epitome of the neighborhood activist.” He recalled one of her favorite causes, the completion and opening of the Chelsea Recreation Center on W. 25th St. in 2001, after the project had been interrupted for 25 years.
Schuler also remembered a trip they took in Doris’s battered old car that ended in a breakdown, and left them both laughing. He also recognized Mary Dorn, Sylvia Dipietro and Judge Lottie Wilkins for helping secure a place for Doris in the Amsterdam Nursing Home, where she lived at the end of her life.
“Doris had an incredible life,” said Skyles-Mulligan. “We all remember how she could fly off the handle and took great joy in arguments. She told me she wanted to be cremated, with no urn, and wanted the speeches at her memorial to be as short as she was,” he recalled.
Kathy Kinsella, a resident of Rhinebeck and a former neighbor, said, “Doris was old enough to be my mother or my aunt. She wasn’t. She was my friend. She was fiercely independent and adventurous.” Kinsella noted that Doris once went to the Galapagos Islands, and also went rafting down the Colorado River to the Grand Canyon.
“Once, when we were hiking near my place in Rhinebeck, she fell and broke an ankle. I told her, ‘Just sit there while I go for some help.’ By the time I came back she had walked halfway home,” Kinsella said.
Doris’s kindness extended to everyone she met
“She took care of her cats, and of other people’s cats,” Kinsella said, recalling that she took temporary care of a cat that a homeless man had been keeping in his knapsack. Doris became the owner of the cat, Sunshine, when the original owner couldn’t take him back. Doris would often let friends of friends sleep on her couch when they needed a temporary place to stay, Kinsella recalled.
“Doris was my mentor. She taught me how to analyze a problem and think it through. We had a loving friendship, even though she’d sometimes hang up the phone on me when we had an argument,” Kinsella said.
Tim Gay, a former Chelsea resident who now lives in Kingston, met Doris when both were elected Democratic District Co-leaders for Chelsea. “We wouldn’t have the wonderful waterfront that we do if it weren’t for Doris and Bob Trentlyon,” he said. (Trentlyon, a co-founder with Doris of the Chelsea Waterside Park Association, was out of town and could not attend the memorial.)
Gay recalled that in 1994, he and Doris faced two other candidates for district leader. “Doris got more votes than the three of us combined,” he said.
A nephew, Jason Hannon, recalled that Doris rode 30 miles on her bicycle to Watchung, NJ, to visit him. “She came to New York after graduating from Wayne State University in Detroit in a beat-up old car with $30 in her pocket,” he said.
“She would beam whenever she talked about Chelsea,” Hannon said.
A niece, Lisa Wagner, a member of the Clark family that adopted Doris as a child, said her aunt taught her to live each day to the fullest.
“She was a moral leader,” said Congressman Jerrold Nadler. “She put pressure on everyone to do the right thing. We were all the beneficiaries of her belief in the power of collective action. It’s a testimony to her that the community cared for her at the end,” he said, adding, “May her memory be a blessing and continue to inspire all of us.”
Comptroller Scott Stringer said, “Doris was the one who got it done. She was always there for us.”
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney recalled that when she was first elected to the New York City Council, she voted against the Westway landfill highway project, against most of the Manhattan delegation. The leader scolded her and made her sit in an obscure corner of the chamber. “I told Doris about my humiliation and she said, ‘He can tell you where to sit but he can’t tell you how to vote.’ We were all lucky to have had Doris in our corner,” Maloney said.
Former State Senator Tom Duane recalled the many occasions when he and Doris solicited election petition signatures. One September evening after the Yom Kipper fast ended at sundown, Duane and Doris were on W. 23rd St. near a synagogue.
Doris said, “They’ll be starving, go get their signatures.”
Duane also remembered Doris’s efforts — successful in the end — to get the shed on Pier 64 demolished because they believed that, if the shed remained up, there would be pressure to lease it for commercial development. He also remembered Doris’s support for a Chelsea residence for homeless HIV-positive people. “Doris was the least NIMBY [not-in-my-backyard] person that I knew,” he said.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer paid tribute to Doris Corrigan’s advocacy, and Assembly Member Richard Gottfried commented that she was never afraid of a fight. “She was an extraordinary person who made a difference,” Gottfried said.
Brad Hoylman, current State Senator representing Chelsea, said, “Doris always kept it real. Many of us in politics are overly interested in getting credit. Doris wasn’t concerned with credit. She wanted to get things done.”
Corey Johnson, current City Council member for Chelsea, recalled that Doris always convinced him to go out to close a poll at 9 p.m. on election day, even when he didn’t want to be bothered.
“Doris set the example for me on how to live in a community and be a part of it,” said Laura Morrison. “She loved Chelsea. She loved the tree outside her window. It was a privilege for me to be part of her life.”
