Aug 6, 2020
Doris Buffett died yesterday. She was surrounded by family and friends and listening to the music of Billie Holiday. At 92, Doris had changed the lives of hundreds of people through her philanthropy and established the Center on Domestic Violence.
Doris believed in seeing people as individuals, believing in their capacity to overcome adversity and in her own ability to provide a critical “hand up” as opposed to a “hand out” to people in need. I first met Doris when I became director of the safehouse for victims of domestic violence in Boulder, Colorado. Though she had since moved to the east coast, Doris had been a volunteer for Safehouse for several years. She had continued her commitment to battered women, sitting on the board, and working to create comfortable living spaces at shelters in a number of communities. She would call me occasionally, with a question, “How does Boulder County Safehouse handle staffing issues or How does Safehouse maintain a 24/7 crisis line?” We became long distance colleagues and friends.
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