Dauna Rose Webb Binder, 84, longtime resident of Portland, Maine, passed away on August 18 th at Avita of Westbrook from complications due to Alzheimer’s. Born in Island Falls, Maine, she was the eldest of five children of Dwight G. Webb and Ardyth R. Webb. A graduate of the University of Maine at Orono, Ms. Binder married Henry J. Binder on April 7, 1962.
After a stint in Louisville, KY, and Valley Stream, NY, for Henry’s army service and graduate degree, the couple settled in Rutland, Vermont, where Dauna began her career as a sixth grade teacher. They later settled in Scarborough, Maine, while Henry served as principal and later supervisor of elementary and middle schools in Falmouth. Together they raised three children, Leah, Abraham, and Aaron.
Dauna grew up in Gorham in a large family, and throughout her life adored her siblings Michael, Deborra, Randy, and the late Brian, as well as a large coterie of beloved nieces and nephews. She spent happy summers with cousins and aunts and uncles in her mother’s birthplace in Aroostook County.
Dauna was a committed feminist who fought all her life for the rights of women. She co-chaired the Maine State coalition for the Equal Rights Amendment in the early 70s. She successfully got her daughter admitted to “shop” class in middle school, and overturned the school policy that restricted the class to boys. All her life she actively served Maine’s League of Women Voters and National Council of Jewish Women.
Dauna believed in the importance of civic engagement and the nobility of the political process, including not villainizing politics but recognizing how essential it is to our Democracy, where everyone has a say. To convey that message to her students, the daily paper was essential reading in her classroom and students formed governance committees to vote on classroom rules and decide issues. One year she worked with her students to advocate naming the new bridge in Portland after Margaret Chase Smith. Her classroom was always nonpartisan, but she was personally strong Democrat who once ran for the statehouse from her district in Portland.
Dauna was passionate about educating and supporting children. She believed every child had a gift to give the world and her job was to help them discover that gift. She loved her chosen profession in education, not only her 20 years as an elementary classroom teacher, but also her decade as an exceptionally successful salesperson of educational resources for schools across Maine and northern New England. As a classroom teacher at Presumpscot Elementary School in Portland, she had the ability to quiet a roomful of 10-year-olds with one special glance. She was a creative, challenging, and caring educator admired by hundreds of students over the years, many of whom came back to visit her and reminisce.
With her beloved husband Henry Binder’s untimely death 1984, Dauna was thrust very suddenly into the role of young widow and single mother, a role she took on with enormous courage and grace.
In this she was forever grateful for the community that embraced and supported her, including her parents and siblings, her many dear friends, and her synagogue, Temple Beth El, especially the families in her Havurah. Ultimately her children thrived as adults and gave her three extraordinary grandchildren who adore her, Henry, Hannah, and Kacey.
She was both a bookworm and the life of any party, known for her warmth and sparkling sense of humor. She felt her son Abe was the funniest man she ever met. The family would gather to read funny stories aloud, crying together with laughter.
She loved the State of Maine and often bragged about the disproportionate number of luminaries who come from the state.
Dauna is predeceased by her brother, Brian Webb, and survived by her siblings: Deborra & Derek Lundberg; Randy & Gail Webb; Michael & Joanne Webb and Jane Webb; by her many beloved nieces and nephews, and by her children: Leah Binder & Sam Elowitch of Rockville, Maryland; Abraham & Anita Binder of Toronto, Canada; and H. Aaron & Linda Binder of Holland, PA; and her grandchildren: Henry Elowitch, Hannah Binder, and Kacey Elowitch.
Dauna also expanded her family to include the families of her children’s spouses, and built loving relationships with the extended Elowitch family, and Roscioli family.
Services to remember Dauna will be on Friday at 10:00 AM at Etz Chaim Synagogue, 267 Congress St in Portland. Shiva will be observed at Embassy Suites Hotel, 1050 Westbrook at the Portland Airport from 11:30 to 4:00 PM. Donations honoring Dauna’s memory may be made to Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, The Leapfrog Group, or any charity that fights for children. The family is deeply grateful to the people of Avita Memory Care in Westbrook who loved and cared for Dauna. Arrangements entrusted to Portland Jewish Funeral Home.