Preus, Doris M. "Topsy" passed away after a brief illness on Sunday, August 9th, 2020 at age 93 in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Topsy was preceded in death by her parents and by her brother and sister as well as her husband of 60 years, David H. Preus. She is survived by her daughter Catherine Preus and her son Peter Preus. Topsy was raised in Savannah, Georgia. She graduated from Vassar College and attended Yale Nursing School where she met her future husband, David, in New Haven, Connecticut. They moved to Minneapolis shortly after they married where she worked for many years at the University of Minnesota as an associate scientist and technician operating an electron microscope doing research in cell biology. She later transitioned into a computer programming role to define a program to track grants at the University. In their retirement years, Topsy and David moved to a hundred year-old, red brick farm house on their land adjacent to the St. Croix River near Osceola, Wisconsin. She delighted in the beauty of nature, always enjoying snow-shoeing through the Wisconsin woods and fields. At age 84, she moved to Kendal on Hudson in Sleepy Hollow, New York where she made many new friends and enjoyed concerts, art galleries and walks in the park along the Hudson River. Topsy had a profoundly positive, no-nonsense outlook, facing life head on, making the best of things and always looking for the best in people, generous with her love, wit, and wisdom to her many friends, young and old, who sought her sympathetic ear. Known for her hospitality, Topsy was a marvelous cook and expressed her love for people by feeding them. She enjoyed art, sculpture, classical music, gardening, good grammar, and was a voracious reader of murder mysteries. Particularly fond of the writings of Frithjof Schuon, she was a serious student of the Perennial Philosophy. Topsy approached life with humility, perseverance, and adaptability. She will be remembered and missed by all those who knew and loved her. Memorials preferred to Habitat for Humanity or to The Standing Cedars Community Land Conservancy.

Published on August 30, 2020