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Edith Dubsky Dashnau - Class of 1939

Submitted by Bill Norvell 1965 <w.norvell@att.net> on 04/Sep/2025
173.169.104.36

  Edith Dubsky Dashnau - Class of 1939 a Nurse, WWII airplane mechanic, antique restorer/shop owner, world traveler, wife and mother, Edith Dashnau, age 93, of Snowville, NH, died peacefully at home Wednesday, Feb 17, 2016.
As any of her family would tell you, Edith always had to complete "her list" before she would move onto her next activity. The day before she passed, upon finishing with the disassembly of the piano, she said to her daughter Lori, "There, that is the last thing I had to do." Little did Lori know, what she was really saying was, she was now ready to be with her husband, Donald, who passed in the fall, only one week shy of their 63rd anniversary.
Edith was born in Newburgh, NY, to Charles Dubsky and Helen Jehoda Dubsky. The family resided in the neighboring town of Highland Falls.
She graduated from Newburgh Free Academy in 1939, where she was awarded a varsity letter for basketball and swatball. In 1942 she wanted to help with the war effort and because of her young age, she had to get special permission from her parents in order to enlist. She became a WAVE and through her strong skills, she became the first female to be in charge of a team of mechanics. Edith also wanted to fly in what she helped build, but women were not allowed to. That didn't stop her and on more than one occasion she dressed in a flight suit and snuck her way onto a plane.
In 1945 she received an honorable discharge and headed for business school. It wasn't long before she moved on to nursing at the Mt Sinai Hospital Nursing School. She was the first to be awarded both the Blumenthal Scholarship and the prestigious Guggenheim Award for Excellence. She was soon referred to as the "Bloomin' Googy". While working at the VA hospital in Montrose, she met Don Dashnau, they married in 1952. Together they raised three girls in nearby Mohegan Lake.
After a thirty year nursing career, along with being the director of two nursing homes, it was time to retire. Edith and Don purchased a mill