DOVER - Phyllis Bialow Levitt, of Dover, died on Sunday, Nov. 27, just shy of her 76th birthday from complications following a long struggle with frontal temporal dementia that took away her voice and eventually her body and her life. Born Dec. 10, 1935, in Sunnyside Queens, N.Y., to Blanche and Harry Bialow, Phyllis earned her BA in English at the State University of New York at Albany and her MA in English at NYU. She married Irving Levitt on Groundhog's Day in 1958. They had a glorious marriage and partnership for all these many years. Their two children survive her: David Levitt of Newark, and Laura Levitt and her partner David Watt of Philadelphia. She is survived as well by her brother, Arthur Bialow and his wife Elaine Bialow of New Jersey and their two daughters and their families: Heather Bialow Keating, PJ Keating and Sydney and Morgan Keating of Baltimore, and Devadeva Mirel, Max Mirel, Venu, Madumati, and Bindu Mirel who live in Florida. She also leaves behind her sister-in-law Muriel Wilson and her partner Phil Kartzman as well as her niece Linda DeSimmone and her family and Georgia and Ricky Wilson, her nephew and his wife. She also leaves behind many beloved cousins. Phyllis is also survived by her extended family: Marge, George, and Jason Locke and Julie and Andy Katz; Donna, Irving and Alan Kramer; Jeanie Solomon, Joan and Larry Cohen, and her beloved former students, her colleagues and allies at Dover High School, at the Dover Art League, at the ACLU of Delaware, and at Congregation Beth Sholom. She also leaves behind her dog Maggie and her grand dog Sammy as well as her final caretakers, most especially Ann Marie Bartholomew and Yvette Jarvis and the extraordinary people at Seasons Hospice who were with her at the very end. For over 40 years Phyllis and Irving Levitt made service a central part of their lives. Since arriving in Dover, from Commack, N.Y., in the fall of 1966, they became involved in the community. From those very first years they both took on leadership roles in the synagogue. Phyllis was deeply involved in the Sisterhood and served at various points as its president. She was also a member of a number of pulpit comities bringing various rabbis to Dover. They both have always worked fiercely for the synagogue and represented the Jewish community at the Governor's faith breakfasts, and in Interreligious and Multicultural activities in the broader community. They were also deeply involved in the Jewish Federation of Delaware serving on its board for many, many years representing lower Delaware. They also ran the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) in Dover while also supporting Hadassah, Israel Bond drives, and the Federation's annual campaigns. They also became politically involved working closely with local candidates for public office and with Statewide campaigns especially supporting Democratic candidates including her husband Irv. In the fall of 1967, Phyllis began her tenure at Dover High School. She taught senior English with forays into teaching sophomores. She taught everyone, from the most intellectually gifted to business and remedial English student. She treated ALL of her students with deep respect. Early on at Dover High she was tapped for a leadership position. She was coordinator and chair of the English department until she retired in 1992. From that first year she held Great Books seminars in her home each week reading the pink and then the green covered classics. Her students are her other children. They are her pride and joy and she has many, many things to be proud of! Her students have become poets and playwrights, mayors, and doctors, businessmen and women, shop owners, lawyers and professors, judges and nurses, and social workers, and chefs, as well as editors, and dancers. She loved them all and their love was a solace especially at the end of her life as they remained in touch with her to the very end. Phyllis went nowhere in Dover without running into people she knew and people who knew her! While at Dover High, Phyllis led the Delaware chapter of the national organization of Teachers of English. She served on numerous commissions and committees for the Delaware State Department of Education, DEA. She was also strongly involved in the teacher's union as well as an educational sorority, ADK. With Jean Solomon she become a thorn in the National organization's side as she pressed for more transparency in the their finances and insisted on seeing more of their funds go into scholarships for students. She was fierce in these efforts! Over the years she hired numerous faculty members all of whom became her friends. The Casey's Alice, David and Barbara do stand out because Alice became an English teacher herself in Phyllis's department! And like my mother, she too was an amazing teacher. And, for many years, Phyllis helped create and then teach the Johns Hopkins gifted summer course in English for 8th graders in Delaware, very young people who showed exceptional talent in English. She loved these young students and again remained in touch with many of them. She taught them to love reading and writing and published their poetry at the end of each summer session. After retiring, Phyllis weaned herself off teaching by spending a few years at Wesley College and she even taught an English teacher training course at the University of Delaware. After that she devoted her self to full-time volunteer work for the Dover Art League through its five-year Collage of Cultures program, a project she led to great success, to the ACLU of Delaware where she was awarded their highest prize, the Candler Award for her efforts, and to serving on various boards including the Delaware Theater Company among many others. She was awarded the Governor's Prize for the Arts as well as many local awards for her service. She helped fight for Gay and Lesbian rights at the State Legislature for over ten years and would have been delighted to have been able to celebrate recent victories. Phyllis was a leader, an advocate, and always an extraordinary teacher. For those who knew her, she was simply, a force of nature. She lived a full and passionate life. Services will be 1 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, at Congregation Beth Sholom, North Queen Street, Dover, DE 19904. Interment will be in Sharon Hills Memorial Park, Dover. Contributions in her memory may be made to Congregation Beth Sholom, North Queen Street, Dover, DE 19904. Letters of condolence may be sent, and guestbook signed at torbertfuneral.com.