Doris S. Harrison

Doris Harrison passed away August 7, 2021, at 97. Her license plate for many years was “DAHRIS,” because that’s how her name is pronounced in Yonkers, New York, where she was born. Although she lived in the Midwest most of her life, including the last 50 years in Waukesha County, to the many people who loved her, she remained Dahris to the end. Her family will host a celebration of her life sometime in September (details to follow). In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in her name to: • Waukesha County Technical College Foundation (you may direct the donation to the Learning in Retirement scholarship fund) • A scholarship foundation of your choice Doris is survived by a grateful and loving family, including: daughters Pam Harrison and Gail Kablau (Michael), sons Mark (Mary) and Glenn (Jackie), grandchildren Jeremy Zuvich, Kevin Kablau, Shelly Harrison, Hunter Harrison, and Gray Harrison, and her niece, Judy Beck. Doris was Jonas and Louisa Schwartz’s (nee Ackerman) youngest child, and was the last of her siblings, Bert Schwartz (Mary), Gert Stern (Maury), and Irv Rosner (Florence and Dorothy). Also preceding Doris in death were Will Harrison, to whom she was married for 26 years, and beloved grandson Michael Harrison. Doris was smart, funny, kind, and capable. She was steered away from college, as were so many women of her generation, but then spent much of her life and career helping others get a good education. She supported her husband through college and post-graduate school, and later she made sure that any of her children, grandchildren or their spouses who wanted to get a degree would have the means to do so. As an administrative assistant for decades, Doris made everyone she worked for smarter, better prepared, and grammatically correct. Before she retired after 18 years at Waukesha County Technical College, she helped found Learning in Retirement of Waukesha County (LIRWC), a chapter of an international organization devoted to lifelong learning. She worked for LIRWC for another 10 years after “retirement.” Doris sang across the country and beyond with the Crosstown Harmony chapter of Sweet Adelines International, an organization of women’s barbershop choruses. She remains one of the few Sweet Adelines to participate for more than 65 years, serving many stints as a chapter president or other officer. “Daaaaahhhhris,”--as her chorus mates said whenever they saw her—was legendary for keeping the chorus laughing at rehearsals and on road trips to one competition or another. She loved her Crosstown Harmony sisters with her whole heart. They were all her “very best friend.” Another of Dahris’s passions was the Milwaukee Brewers, especially when they beat the Yankees—whom her big brother Bert, a diehard Brooklyn Dodgers fan, taught her to hate—or the Cubs and their loud, obnoxious fans. True story: At a Brewers/Cubs game in Miller Park, she found herself face-to-face with a huge guy in Cubs gear who said, “So, who ya rootin’ for, granny?” Poor choice when addressing a Greatest Generation New Yorker disguised as a tiny, elderly Midwesterner. She stepped up, her head barely reaching the middle of his ample gut, which she poked in rhythm as she told him, “I’m ROOTIN’ for the BREWERS, buster—whaddaya gonna DO about it?” He wisely put his hands up and backed off as his friends fell about the place laughing at him, which, according to sources close to the incident, they are still doing to this day.