Dorothy Turetsky
Obituary
Dorothy Turetsky, daughter of Shirley and Jack Turetsky, was raised in Orlando Florida and graduated from Colonial High School with Honors in 1979. She received a B.S. in Biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984.
In 1999 she received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Washington University St. Louis, and accepted a postdoctoral research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda Maryland.
She came to Tulsa in 2003 to continue her postdoctoral training at OSU Center for Health Sciences, where she subsequently joined the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology as an assistant professor. She was a creative researcher and an outstanding teacher and will be missed by her colleagues and students.
The memorial service for Dorothy will be held at Ninde Brookside Funeral Home Chapel at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, July 12, 2013.
In lieu of flowers please make donations in Dorothy's name to the American Diabetes Association or the Street Cats Tulsa , 6520 E. 60th Street, Tulsa, OK 74145 .(streetcatstulsa.org)
Events
Tributes & Memories
Funeral Home Owner
Dr Turetsky was one of the best teachers I have had in my life. I rotated in her lab for two months in my graduate school. I miss a very great mentor.
Arunkumar Thangaraju
Dr. Turetsky was always willing to help her students she was very dedicated and even took additional time to give us review sessions. She was a great teacher I learned so much from her. Indeed she was my favorite, I distinctly remember I was really worried about doing bad on my Biochem final, she took time to explain concepts that were not clicking in my head and she sent me and email as soon as she was able to find out my grade and told me not to worry that I had done great. I really appreciated that because we ended up getting our grades a couple days later, I would have done badly on the rest of my test just worrying about the biochem test. She took the time to calm me down and teach me what I was not understanding. Thank you Dr. Turetsky for being such an awesome teacher and for being part of my medical education, may you rest in peace.
Grisel Quiroz
Dorothy was a meticulous scientist. She was very honest and for which I am always appreciative of. She was very generous; She crocheted two beautiful items for both of my children when they were born. Whenever I will look at the sweaters, I feel the loss of knowing I will not be hearing from Dorothy in the future.
Anand Desai
Dorothy and I worked together doing tissue culture at the NIH. She was very friendly and extremely helpful in navigating my naïve self through the nuances of tissue culture that you would never find in a manual. Her generous nature enhanced my early experience her at the NIH. I’m sad to hear that she has passed on.
Dr. Steven Coon
My husband surprised me with a fancy kitty for my birthday, after I had made some comment that I missed having a cat like when I was younger. I knew Dr. Turetsky had cats so I was telling her my story. Almost immediately she began bringing me kitty toys for my new pet. When she ordered toys for her cats, a lot of times she would order a toy or two extra for my cat. She would always ask me "so how is your boy?" "did your boy like the toy?" There were times when her cats did not like a special food she ordered for them so she would ask "do you think your boy would like this?" and make sure it was sent home with me for him to try. I loved sharing my kitty stories with Dr. Turetksy and loved that she called him "my boy"!! She was a very generous person and I will miss sharing kitty stories with her!!
Tami Watters
Tami Watters
Dr. Turetsky was one of the most detected professors I know and had a gift for teaching. She when out of her way to make herself available to students. I used to study late at night on the 4th floor and would often visit with her during a study break. I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to to get know her better.
Randy S. Freeman