For more than 30 years, Gene Doi worked as the deputy clerk for DeKalb County.
“She was a very meticulous individual,” said Liane Levetan, former DeKalb County chief executive. “She was accurate, conscientious and just a wonderful individual, and that is the type of individual you would want working with you. Oh, and she did it all while dressed to a T!”
Mrs. Doi took pride in how she looked and had a highly developed sense of fashion, said her daughter, Janice Sears.
“She always wore nice clothes,” Mrs. Sears said. “People used to tell her how nice her suits were.”
During her time with DeKalb County, Mrs. Doi attended monthly county commission meetings and took minutes at the meetings.
“She had a tape recorder but she took all of her notes short hand and then wrote them out long hand and then she typed them,” her daughter said. “Things were not so high tech then, I guess.”
Mrs. Levetan said Mrs. Doi did her work very well, in an age were most things were still done manually.
“I was very privileged to have a number of wonderful county employees, but she personified the best.”
Gene Hashimoto Doi, of Stone Mountain, died Thursday at her residence her sleep. She was 93. A memorial service has been planned for 2 p.m. at Columbia Presbyterian Church in Decatur. SouthCare Cremation Society and Memorial Centers in Marietta is in charge of arrangements.
In the 90s, after Mrs. Doi retired, she involved herself in a number of activities including learning golf in her 70s. She also loved bowling and bridge. Mrs. Doi played bridge in a number of groups in the Atlanta area, including the Good Friends Club in Stone Mountain, said Janet Burdette, who was often her partner. Dr. Burdette said Mrs. Doi was a good bridge player, and she lived her life like she played: carefully.
“You can’t just throw down any card in bridge,” Dr. Burdette said. “You have to plan, and Gene did that well in bridge and in life.”
Mrs. Doi, who was born in Elmira, Calif., was also active in a number of Japanese-American causes, Mrs. Sears said. During World War II, Mrs. Doi was detained in the Manzanar War Relocation Center, with thousands others including Americans of Japanese ancestry. Decades later, after the government admitted the camps were products of “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership,” according to the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, Mrs. Doi took a particular interest in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The act was a formal apology from Congress and provided financial compensation to the more than 120,000 detainees, who where held across the country, or their heirs. Mrs. Doi actively lobbied Georgia politicians to join the bill, her daughter said.
“She did not give up, she did not stop calling the Georgia representatives offices,” Mrs. Sears said. “She also didn’t realize thousands of Japanese-Americans she’d never met would benefit from her efforts.”
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Doi is survived by her husband of 66 years, Michael Doi of Stone Mountain; son, David Doi of Johns Creek; three grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and two brothers, John Hashimoto of Camarillo, Calif., and Jim Hashimoto of Willow Grove, Pa.
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