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Writer and Artist Focused on Feminism, Capitalism, and Nature

Dove Hotz MALS ’02

February 25, 2025, in Eugene, Oregon, of cancer.

Dove Catherine Hotz’s wit, writing, and art focused on feminism, capitalism, and nature. She was born in 1961, living in Paradise, California, and San Bernardino, California, until her family moved to Annandale, Virginia.

Dove was a standout student at Eureka High School, occasionally rattling teachers with her trademark independent thought and sense of justice. Her stepfather, Bill, recalls going to Eureka to smooth an issue with a teacher who’d threatened Dove with suspension. Dove had been factually correct in her mathematics and unrepentant in questioning authority, so teacher and student agreed to disagree.

After working in the Bay Area, including at UC Berkeley, Dove bought a home in Northeast Portland. In addition to working at Concordia University, the Multnomah County Library, and Metro, she attended Reed, which extended her grasp of feminism and power. Her thesis, titled “Furious Feminist: The Riotous Radicalism of Dr. Marie Equi,” was written with advising from Professor Jacqueline Dirks [history and humanities].

Dove retired in 2015 and toured Eastern Oregon with her husband, Eric Signell. “She was always great at sending cards and little handmade gifts to friends and family for any occasion that she felt warranted it,” Eric said. “We were gypsies looking for our forever home, for the next nine years starting in 2015.” They found that home in Eugene, on Wendover Street—whose eight letters, fittingly, include “dove.”

Although not a smoker, Dove  was diagnosed in September 2020 with stage 4 terminal small cell lung cancer. She faced the illness squarely and focused  on the resources at her disposal: intensity, humor, and love, which helped lengthen her life by four years.

Appeared in Reed magazine: Winter 2025

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