Dorothy Gum Obituary

DOROTHY GUM Dorothy "Dot" Gum, 95, passed away peacefully on August 11, surrounded by family. Born in Honolulu, Dot overcame early hardships and witnessed history firsthand, including the attack on Pearl Harbor. She met her beloved husband Dr. Moy Fook Gum after he served in WWII, and they married in Chicago, where Dot supported Moy's education at the University of Chicago while she worked in the University's Egyptology Department's Museum. In 1956, they settled in Duluth, MN, where Dot embraced the outdoors, earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from UMD, and taught over 425 elementary students in her 17-year-career at the Duluth Public School District. An enthusiastic educator and cultural ambassador, she led the 1983 teachers' strike, received a Bush Fellowship to teach in Thailand, and created enriching programs celebrating global traditions. Dot traveled the world, painted, cooked delicious global delights, learned how to play ukelele and organ, was a state DFL delegate, election judge, and was active in PEO and First United Methodist Church. She is survived by her loving children Greg (Laura), Elinor, Aileen, and Joellyn (Richard), grandchildren Leah (Brad), Evan, Devin, and Oliver, and great-grandson Niall, many nieces and nephews, Hawaii family, and sisters Laura and Beatrice. Her Celebration of Life was Saturday, September 6, 2025 at The Coppertop "First United Methodist" Church in Duluth, MN. Dot will be interred beside her husband Moy in Honolulu's Punchbowl National Cemetery in a private ceremony. Mahalo and Aloha to a life well-lived! Donations in her memory can be made to the AL/MN PEO Chapter mnpeo/peo-projects.html, the UMD Dr. Moy F. and Dorothy Lee Gum scholarship fund makingagift.umn.edu/give/fund.html?id=4276, the Solvay Hospice House, or the Cancer Research Institute.