Dorothy Gary, Republican Activist, Dies

Dorothy M. Gary of Garden Grove, a Republican activist and network radio pioneer, died on Thanksgiving Day after a long illness, it was disclosed Sunday. She was 80.

Mrs. Gary was founder and past president of Garden Grove Republican Women Federated and was past president of Orange County Republican Women Federated.

Born in San Francisco, Mrs. Gary graduated from Armstrong Business College in Berkeley, with degrees in business administration and commercial law. In the early 1930s, she worked for CBS radio in San Francisco and eventually became the first woman radio executive on a national level, said a family spokeswoman who asked that her name not be used.

After her radio career, she married Donald A. Gary, a naval officer who rose to the rank of commander and received the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor in World War II. After her husband’s death in 1977, Mrs. Gary set up the Donald Gary Memorial Fund for Cancer Research at the UC Irvine College of Medicine.

Mrs. Gary had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for the last six years.

She is survived by her son, Kenneth Gary, a grandson and a great-grandson.

The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the First Presbyterian Church of Garden Grove, 11832 Euclid St.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Donald Gary Memorial Fund at UC Irvine. More information is available from the Peak Family Mortuary in Westminster.