Dooley Sciple Kiefer

Dooley Sciple Kiefer passed away on April 4, 2023, after a battle with cancer.

She was born on July 31, 1936, in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, to Clara Baird Sciple and Carl M. Sciple.  After growing up "all over," due to her father being in the US Army, Dooley was valedictorian of her high school class, and excelled in playing field hockey and basketball. Dooley then attended Cornell University, graduating in 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics. She married Jack Kiefer in September, 1957, and they had two children, Sarah and Dan. Dooley spent much of her adult life doing good in the world.

Dooley was a force to be reckoned with, in her dedication to protecting the environment and in championing the interests of the public she so fervently represented. Dooley's commitments to the public good were many, with ethics and the environment her chief interests over the years. A highly principled individual with a keen, incisive intellect, she worked diligently to discover facts in order to form judgments within an ethical framework. By her own hard work and commitment, Dooley set a consistent example of the highest standards in public service.

Professionally, Dooley was an editor for the publications of the Ecological Society of America for many years.

In her political career, Dooley was the Tompkins County Legislator representing the Villages of Cayuga Heights and Lansing from 1994 through 2017. She chaired many committees during that time and served as Legislature Vice Chair in 2010 and 2011. Dooley served on the County's Ethics Advisory Board as a Legislator from 1997 through 2017. She was the Board's Chair from 1999 through her retirement from the Legislature at the end of 2017 and continued serving on the Board through 2020. Dooley was an essential member of the County's Charter Review Committee, which periodically reviewed the charter in detail and recommended changes to the full legislature. Between 1996 and 2016, she served seven years on the committee, with three years as vice chair and one year as chair.

Dooley became known as an environmental leader when she helped create the Citizens Committee to Save Cayuga Lake in response to NYSEG's 1968 proposal to build the Bell Station Nuclear Power Plant on land adjacent to Cayuga Lake. The project was initially endorsed by the Tompkins County Board of Supervisors. During a time when there were no environmental regulations to support their position, the Committee mounted such a forceful campaign that NYSEG abandoned the project in 1973. In recognition of this leadership, Dooley and the late Doris Brown were awarded the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network's Dave Morehouse Prize.

Throughout her legislative career, Dooley continued her passionate dedication and steadfast commitment to protecting treasured water resources, serving on the Tompkins County League of Women Voters Natural Resources Committee and the County's Environmental Management Council and Water Resources Council.

Particular issues demanded and received Dooley's diligent attention over the years. Examples were her service on the EMC's Unique Natural Areas Committee, the long-term oversight of the County's Hillview Road Landfill after it was closed, and her insistence on development of a scientifically robust and environmentally acceptable plan for the waste streams managed by the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine.

With her trusty clipboard, yellow legal pad, pen, and pencil never far from hand, Dooley brought her love of the written word and editorial eye for detail to bear on the crafting and shaping of many county documents over the years, including educational brochures and public outreach publications, revisions of bylaws and the County Charter, numerous annual reports, and untold sets of meeting minutes. Dooley was always ready to listen and debate in ways both lively and respectful with colleagues, whether the topic be lake source cooling or gas pipeline remediation, before then joining those same colleagues for a mint julep or two in a glass raised in honor of that year's equine victor of the Kentucky Derby.

In her personal time, Dooley was an accomplished harpsichordist and player of the viola da gamba, and a member of the Cornell Savoyards and the Cornell Women's Glee Club (Cornell University Chorus). She enjoyed beer and mushroom hunting. A theater lover, Dooley enjoyed plays at the Kitchen Theatre and Ithaca College, and was a frequent visitor to Saratoga for horse racing and concerts.

Dooley's husband, Jack Kiefer, passed away in 1981; she was blessed to find a partner in life after Jack passed away in Richard Flaville, who passed away in 2017. Her son Dan passed away earlier this year. Dooley is survived by her brother Carl B. Sciple, as well as his children and grandchildren; and by her daughter-in-law Deborah Clark, her grandchildren, Lucy Clark Kiefer and Jack Clark Kiefer, her daughter Sarah Kiefer, and her many friends who loved her.

A celebration of Dooley's life is being planned for later this year. In recognition of her long-term love of Cayuga Lake, donations in Dooley's memory may be made to the Finger Lakes Land Trust, which is preserving the Bell Station property, fllt.org/donatet, and in recognition of the excellent care she received at the end of her life, donations may be made in her honor to Hospicare and Palliative Care Services of Tompkins and Cortland Counties:  https://www.hospicare.org/ .