Shirley Glasser of Wellfleet died peacefully on Sept. 12, 2021 in her apartment at Maplewood at Brewster. She was 90 years old.
Born and raised in Madison, Wisc., Shirley was the middle child of Lou and Jeanne Rapoport. She attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison and completed her degree in sociology at Ohio State University.
Traveling to Europe with a one-way ticket in the early 1950s, Shirley explored the U.K., France, and Italy, including the adventure of being locked in Pompeii after hours. She worked her passage back to the U.S. as the activities director on a ship in a rough Atlantic crossing.
She found her first employment as a youth worker in New York City and later worked with seniors at the Jewish Home for the Aged in the Bronx and at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan. Several coworkers became lifelong friends.
With no shortage of suitors, Shirley met Roland, a quiet young man, on a blind date. Shirley played hard to get, but said she knew pretty quickly that “he was the one.” They married in 1959 and set up their first home in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
In 1962, the couple moved to Irvington, N.Y. to raise their family. Shirley became a mother and homemaker, and also began to develop her skills in the visual arts.
She was active in the Irvington League of Women Voters and was a board member of the Sleepy Hollow Community Concerts Association. She was also active in the Irvington Community Ambassador Association, a student exchange program that was part of the Experiment in International Living.
With Rolly, she gave her children opportunities and experiences through family adventures, skiing, music, theater, camping, cooking, gardening, nature, and the creative arts.
Shirley’s love of the arts led her to enroll as an undergraduate in the College of Arts at SUNY Purchase at age 49; she earned her B.F.A. in 1984. In 1991, she joined a group of like-minded creatives as a founding member of the Upstream Gallery in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
She began her love affair with what she called her “forever home” in Wellfleet in the late 1960s with a decade of summer rentals. Shirley and Rolly bought a piece of land in the late ’70s and built a contemporary Cape in 1980, with an eye on a long future. Rolly died six years later.
Shirley built a studio for her art and to satisfy her need for a small comforting space that was just hers.
Her son Phil spent a few summers working at Windsurfing Wellfleet, leading the 50-something Shirley to take up the sport and become known as a windsurfing groupie and likely liability during the early days of the shop.
Shirley’s home was her domain, even if it involved a cadre of caregivers to help her sustain her domestic existence and her dream of living year-round in Wellfleet. As she aged in place, the Wellfleet Council on Aging became a centerpiece in her life. Bridge Club, Book Club, Iris’s Café, and the occasional exercise class kept her lively and engaged. She persuaded her caregivers to sit through Live at the Met Opera screenings at WHAT and enjoying screenings and concerts at Preservation Hall. Keen to keep up with the local arts scene, she embraced Rob Rindler’s offerings through the Open University of Wellfleet.
Her need to continue to make art kept her going, even though she had to drag her caregivers to life-drawing sessions at PAAM and quietly push for special permission to take just one more course in bronze casting at Castle Hill, relying heavily on the teacher for extra help, as she could barley manage the tools. In the last five years, Shirley was fortunate to have shows of her work at the Wellfleet Public Library, the Wellfleet branch of the Cape Cod Five Bank, and the Wellfleet Council on Aging. In the last weeks of her life, she saw several of her pieces shown in a residents’ showcase at Maplewood.
Shirley benefited from the care and support of the Wellfleet and Eastham councils on aging, Outer Cape Health Services, the Alzheimer’s Family Center of Cape Cod, and Cape Cod Hospital. Her family expressed gratitude to the individual caregivers and the community as a whole.
“While she may be gone, her spirit, and the memory of her smile, her passions, and her embrace of the many gifts that she was given will always live on in those whose lives she has touched,” said her son Len.
Shirley is survived by her sister, Ruth Stotter of Tiburon, Calif.; her son, Len Glasser, daughter-in-law Anna, and granddaughter Jasmine of Australia; and a much loved collection of nieces, nephews, partners, and their children.
Shirley was predeceased by her husband, Roland, her son Philip, her sister Joyce Loshaek, and her eldest niece, Laurie Loshaek.
An online memorial service will be held on Saturday, Oct. 2. For information, write to [email protected].
Donations in Shirley’s memory may be made to the Alzheimer’s Family Support Center of Cape Cod (alzfamilysupport.org/ways-to-give); the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill (castlehill.org/giving#give); Wellfleet Preservation Hall (wellfleetpreservationhall.org); or the Audubon Society (massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/wellfleet-bay).
