Dorothy Cooper Ames of New Canaan died May 17 at her home after a long battle with cancer. She was 85. Born in Montrose, N.Y., she grew up in Palmyra, N.J., and graduated in 1946 from Centre College of Kentucky. She taught chemistry at Centre until 1952, when she married Oaks Ames. Always an active volunteer in her community, Mrs. Ames served on the Board of Trustees of Corning Community College in New York and on the board for her alma mater, Centre College. A resident of New Canaan since 1984, she was a member of the New Canaan Sewing Group, serving at one point as its treasurer. For more than 40 years, Mrs. Ames was deeply involved with Meals on Wheels, family members said, volunteering wherever she lived at the time — first in Corning, N.Y., then while living abroad in Newcastle, England, and finally, in New Canaan, where she served as president of the chapter in the 1990s. In addition to her family and many friends, Mrs. Ames loved her dogs, the birds at her feeder, the shrubs and flowers in her garden, and cocktails at sunset on the porch of her summer cottage at Surfside Beach in Nantucket, Mass., her family said. In addition to her husband, Mrs. Ames is survived by her three children: Oaks I. Ames II and his wife, Joanne, of New Canaan, Anne Ames Boudreau and her husband, Regis, of Carlisle, Mass., and Pennel C. Ames and his wife, Sharon, of Nantucket; and five grandchildren. She will be buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass. A memorial service will be held at a Saturday June 26 at 11:00 AM at St. Mark’s Church in New Canaan. Saturday June 26, 2010 , 11:00 AM at St. Mark's Church Click for Map and Directions