Dorothy Woodruff (Hillman) was born in Auburn, N.Y., January 13, 1887, the daughter of Caroline Porter Beardsley and John Herman Woodruff. She attended Rye Seminary in Rye, N.Y., and graduated from Smith College in 1909. In 1916 she went to Routt County, Colorado with childhood friend and Smith College alumna, Rosamond Underwood, to teach for a year at the Elkhead School, built for the children of homesteaders who had come to settle in the Rocky Mountains. Woodruff later married Lemuel Serrell Hillman, with whom she had two daughters, Caroline and Hermione, and two sons, Serrell and Douglas. Throughout her life, Woodruff was active in civil and charitable work; she was executive director of the Grand Rapids (MI) chapter of the American Red Cross, and later became regional director for western Michigan. She died May 13, 1979.