Long-time Town Clerk Dorothy Ogar — “a Shelter Island institution” — has announced her retirement.
“With regret, the Town Board accepts her notice of retirement,” Supervisor Gerry Siller said in a notice issued on November 21. “Dorothy has been the Town Clerk, Registrar of Vital Statistics, Freedom of Information Officer, and Records Access Officer for the Town of Shelter Island since 1978.”
“Dorothy’s vast knowledge, unparalleled service, and total commitment to the Town of Shelter Island will be greatly missed. The Town is losing a very important piece of our Town government, but the Town Board is supportive of Dorothy’s decision to spend more time with her family.
“It is quite hard to put into words just what Mrs. Ogar means to this Town,” Siller wrote. “Not too many residents can remember a time when she wasn’t part of Town government. Dorothy is a Shelter Island institution.
“We will be forever grateful for all she and her family have done for our Island community and wish her well in the next phase of her life.”
Ogar, who announced her intention to retire effective December 17 in a letter to the Town Board dated November 18, cited ongoing health concerns relating to her recovery from COVID-19.
“My desire to retire has come sooner than I was expecting,” Ogar said in her letter. “But I am hoping that it could assist me with my recovery from COVID.”
She said she’s been “struggling with this disease” since the middle of July and “I am not improving as quickly as I would like to.”
“I will miss serving the people of this Town as I have for the past 61 years,” she wrote. “This has been basically a lifetime career for me. As you know, I have always called Shelter Island ‘my Town’ and I have enjoyed the journey.”
Town officials dedicated the Town Clerk’s Office to Ogar in a ceremony last month to recognize her decades of service to the community.
