Dale Goehringer Toner
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution announces with great sorrow the death of former employee Dale Goehringer Toner on September 3, 2024. She was 68.
Dale was born to Ernest and Helen Goehringer in Bryn Mawr, PA. The youngest of six children, she attended Ursinus College receiving a bachelor’s degree in biology and at Boston University receiving a master’s degree in biology. She followed her dream of coastal science at WHOI where she joined the laboratory of Dr. John M. Teal in 1978 as a research assistant, researching biogeochemical functions of coastal systems (salt marshes) throughout Southeastern Massachusetts. As a research assistant, her research took her to Corsica, Denmark, Peru, and Antarctica. Dale was promoted several times throughout her career and left in 1997 and became a guest investigator until 1998. She worked extensively along the coastlines of Falmouth and the other Cape towns. She oversaw Falmouth Pondwatchers, the citizen-based monitoring program that formed the basis for the Massachusetts Estuaries project.
Dale became active in the local community, mentoring students interested in Marine Science, judging school science fair projects, and working with teachers within the Iditarod Education Project. As a Falmouth Youth Hockey coach, she met and married her husband Jim, raising three young children attending Falmouth Public Schools. They spent summers at their beach house in Sandwich, and winters skiing in Maine. As a family, they traveled annually to Canada, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and Norway.
After a 20-year career at WHOI, Dale joined the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, Coastal Systems Program. Her responsibilities included oversight and coordination of specific research projects and financial operations of the Coastal Systems Program. She also oversaw recruitment of interns and work-study students. She served as Coastal Systems Program liaison to municipalities and agencies. She loved her work, and she never retired.
The family grew up in Falmouth, where they became involved with the Falmouth Militia, Falmouth Historical Commission, and Falmouth Commodores. Her hobbies included hang gliding, skiing, mushing, and board sailing which unfortunately ended during her 25-year battle with multiple sclerosis but didn’t dampen her love of blue grass music. She was a long-term member of the Woods Hole Golf Club.
Dale was a social and energetic participant in many activities with friends and new acquaintances alike. She had a wide range of interests and loved to learn. She participated with her children in the class and band rooms from first grade to high school, enthusiastically supported their sports teams, engaged in scouting, and visited their college campuses for numerous activities.
Dale is survived by her husband James Toner III and their three children; Mary Toner and Kathleen Toner of Providence, RI, and James Toner IV of Manchester, NH.
Visitation will take place on Friday, September 13 from 5-8 p.m. at Chapman Funeral Home, 475 Main Street, Falmouth. A Funeral Mass will take place on September 14 at 11 a.m. at Corpus Christi Parish, 324 Quaker Meeting House Road, East Sandwich.
Donations may be sent in her name to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Information for this obituary is from the Chapman Funeral Home website