Margot Ammann Durrer Obituary
Dr. Margot Ammann Durrer, 88, of New York, N.Y., formerly of Boonton, died Dec. 28, 2010, of pneumonia.
Born in 1922 in Boonton, she attended Boonton Public Schools, and graduated in 1939 from Boonton High School, where she was senior class president.
In 1939, she then enrolled at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., but left from 1943 to 1944 to help in the war effort as a German-English interpreter and translator at a German POW camp in Tennessee, working with captured Nazi soldiers and sailors.
Dr. Ammann Durrer returned to Vassar in 1944, receiving her Bachelor of Science in 1945. She then enrolled in New York Medical College, where she received her medical degree in 1952. She was an OB/GYN physician in New York City for over 30 years and affiliated with New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.
In 1948, she met and later married Dr. Gustave Durrer, who had a dental practice in New York City. They lived on the Upper East Side until her death.
She was the daughter of civil engineer Othmar Ammann, who lived in Boonton for almost 40 years and designed many famous bridges, including the George Washington and Verrazano-Narrows Bridges. She was an active alumnus of Boonton High School and her name is inscribed on the Wall of Fame. Dr. Ammann Durrer was a benefactor of the Boonton Historical Society and Museum and in 2002 sponsored and funded the exhibition and presentation, “Boonton’s Bridgebuilder to the World.” She was also involved in the Swiss-American Society and Lenox Hill Community Center in New York.
Dr. Ammann Durrer is survived by her three nephews, George Ammann Jr. of Lansing, Mich., Lawrence Ammann of Charleston, S.C., and Thomas Ammann of Houston, Texas.
There was no service or burial. Dr. Ammann Durrer donated her body to medical science at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where her remains will be interred in the hospital vault.
Published in The Record/Herald News on Mar. 2, 2011
The story of Margot’s life, as told in her own words, may be found in Westward: Encounters with Swiss-American Women by Susann Bosshart-Kalin. The book is available for loan on the library’s Kindles-to-go.
