Doris Marie Schanzer Paterson Schneider
Doris was born in Vienna, Austria, on November 18, 1926, to Stephan and Eva Schanzer. Around 1937, Eva became ill and returned to her home town of Pilsen, Czechoslovikia to recouperate. She never returned to Vienna. It wasn't until many years later, when Doris was an adult, that she learned of her mother's apparent suicide. By 1939, her father had arranged for Doris and her younger brother, Karl, to be adopted by a kind family in Australia, the Patersons. This was a fortunate situation as the children were safe from the war that raged throughout Europe for the next six years. Her years in Australia not happy ones; Doris did not feel accepted or comfortable in the Paterson family. This experience colored her view of the world for the rest of her life. In 1948, sister and brother were reunited with their dad in New York. Doris enjoyed a career as a New York dress designer, and soon after met her future husband, Herbert A. Schneider.
Herb and Doris married in 1953. They decided to move to Millington, New Jersey, where they raised their two children Thomas Dana (born November 8, 1955) and Linda Renée (born December 17, 1956). During this time, at home with the children, Doris would exercised her artistic talent by painting. Doris had not completed high school while in Australia, and so completed her General Education Diploma (GED) in 1965. Herb's career at Bell Telephone Laboratories took the family to Holmdel, New Jersey, where Doris went on to study Home Economics at Rutgers University. In 1969, after two years in Holmdel, the family moved again, this time to Boulder, Colorado. In 1974 Doris graduated from the University of Colorado in Sociology.
The move to Boulder was welcomed by the whole family as they were now living just a few hours from Aspen, Colorado where Doris's brother and father now lived. Doris and Herb also enjoyed activities in the mountains. They often took their children camping, skiing and hiking. Doris was an active member of the National Ski Patrol for 30 years. With influence from her father, a jewelery teacher in Carbondale, Colorado, and a natural interest in design, Doris chose to become a jeweler herself. She took a number of classes at the local university and sold her jewelry for years before eventually opening a shop in Boulder called Design Sphere Ltd.
In 1998 Doris closed her shop and retired from jewelry making. Soon after that she and Herb moved to Fraiser Medows Manor Retirement Community in Boulder where she lived out the remainder of her life, returning to painting as a creative outlet.
Doris passed away on February 26, 2004, having just completed her last work. She remains beside her father in the Masonic Cemetery near Aspen. These are Herb's words about Doris from that day: A Celebration.