Deloris Harrison Netzband

HANOVER, NH — Deloris Harrison Netzband, writer, educator, editor, died peacefully Saturday March 28th 2020 at Hanover Terrace, where she had resided for the past year. She was 82.

Born in 1938 at her mother’s childhood home in Bedford, VA, to Ernest and Lucy (Hall) Harrison, Deloris grew up in Harlem, in New York City. She demonstrated an early passion for books and a talent for writing. Graduating from Julia Richmond High School at sixteen, she received her BA in English in 1958 from St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, NY and went on to receive her MA in English from NYU. By age 30, Deloris was a published author, having written We Shall in Live Peace, about the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Her first novel, Journey All Alone, was published in 1971. Her short stories have been published in numerous literary and national magazines and anthologies since the early 1970s. Most recently, Dresden Suite, a collection of short stories was published in 2014. In addition to her creative writing, Deloris was a co-founder and co-editor of Bloodroot Literary Magazine and was often seen reading from her work at libraries and bookstores in the Upper Valley.

Deloris is perhaps most recognized as an educator. She spent nearly 50 years teaching and mentoring children and young adults all over the world. Deloris first stood in front of a classroom as a 23 year-old English teacher at the all-boys, De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx in New York City. She was awarded a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship in the Netherlands in 1966, where she spent a year in Bergen op Zoom. Upon return she became a lecturer at City College in New York and in 1970 accepted a position in the English Department at Dartmouth College, moving away from her beloved New York up to Hanover, New Hampshire. Deloris also taught at Windham College in Putney, Vermont. In 1974, she became an English and Drama teacher at Orford High School, in Orford, and later taught at Hanover High School. In 1982, Deloris moved to Maadi, Egypt, a suburb of Cairo, to become the head of the English Department at Cairo American College, where she remained for 11 years. Upon returning to Hanover in 1993, Deloris decided to pursue a lifelong interest in psychology and obtained a Master’s Degree in Counselor Education from Plymouth State College. She then began a fulfilling career as a guidance counselor for several schools in the area, ultimately settling down at Grantham Village School, until retiring at age 72.

Deloris remained a prolific writer until the complications of glaucoma caused her to lose the majority of her sight. Her final novel, as yet unpublished, is a mystery set in the fictional New England town featured in many of her works. Deloris is preceded in death by her parents, Ernest Harrison and Lucy Hall Harrison. She is survived by her daughter Germaine Netzband of New York City, her former spouse, Richard P. Netzband, her cousins John Hall, Doris Bishop, and Louise Lopez, and many other loving cousins.

Due to current restrictions, a memorial service will be planned for a later date, when we are able to gather in celebration. Condolences to Deloris’ family may be made in an online guestbook at www.knightfuneralhomes.com.

If you would like to make a gift in memory of Deloris, please donate to the Howe Library at www.thehowe.org, or the Southern Poverty Law Center at www.splcenter.org.