Dorothy McCluskey

Dorothy McCluskey (1928 or 1929 – February 15, 2013) was an American politician and conservationist from Connecticut. McCluskey was among the first women to graduate from the Yale School of the Environment, and she worked extensively in the field of conservation. She served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1975 to 1983, representing the 86th district as a Democrat.

Personal life and education McCluskey was born Dorothy Soest in Middletown, Connecticut. In 1949, she graduated from Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where she earned an interdisciplinary bachelor's degree in philosophy and physics. McCluskey subsequently studied at the University of Oslo under a Fulbright scholarship, where she researched the life of Fridtjof Nansen.

In 1973, four years after Yale University became coeducational, McCluskey became the second woman to earn a Master's in Forest Science from the Yale School of the Environment. and Angela Cropper. In 2002, McCluskey endowed the fellowship in perpetuity with a $1 million donation. In 1996, McCluskey and fellow Connecticut politician and conservationist Claire C. Bennitt published a book about the process titled Who Wants to Buy a Water Company? From Private to Public Control in New Haven.

McCluskey would serve in the House of Representatives for four terms, representing the 86th district as a Democrat. She did not run for reelection in 1982, and she was succeeded by Timothy P. Ryan.

Following her service in the House of Representatives, McCluskey continued working in local government. From 1986 to 2001, she served on New Shoreham, Rhode Island's planning board.

Death McCluskey died on February 15, 2013, in Mystic, Connecticut. She was 84.