Dena Greenberg Gordon, Teacher Who Supported Vulnerable Students, Dies at 75

Dena Greenberg Gordon, a special education teacher, devoted mother and grandmother, and longtime Pikesville resident known for her warmth and candor, died on Jan. 26 after a sudden illness. She was 75.

Gordon spent much of her professional life working in Baltimore City schools, where she taught special education and cared deeply about students whose lives were often difficult outside the classroom.

Her daughter, Danielle Petrycki, said the work mattered to her mother because she wanted to help children who needed extra support.

“I think it was really rewarding,” Petrycki said. “She worked with these children that came from very low-income backgrounds.” Gordon often brought clothes and toiletries to school for students whose families were struggling.

Gordon was born and raised in Baltimore, the youngest of five girls in a close-knit Jewish family. Her parents were Rose and David Greenberg. Her mother immigrated from Poland as a child and later worked in a clothing store. Her father was a taxi driver.

She grew up on Boarman Avenue in a largely Jewish neighborhood in northwest Baltimore.
Her lifelong friend Sandra Appel met Gordon when they were 5 years old at kindergarten registration. The two attended school together from kindergarten through sixth grade and remained friends for decades.

“It still was like an atmosphere of a Jewish neighborhood,” Appel said. Even families that were not highly observant marked Jewish holidays and gathered with friends.

Appel said the two eventually began walking home from school together and became close friends in sixth grade when they sat next to each other in class. Although their lives later took different directions, the friendship endured.

“We always could make each other laugh,” Appel said. “Everything doesn’t have to be the same. I think maybe that’s what friendship is based on.”

Gordon attended Northwestern High School and later earned a degree in special education from what was then called Coppin State College.

Before settling into her teaching career, Gordon spent several years in California during her younger days. Petrycki described her mother as part of the free-spirited hippie era of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Gordon loved music, especially artists such as Joni Mitchell and the Mamas and the Papas, and she enjoyed singing and dancing.

“She was very fun,” Petrycki said. “Just a joyful person.”

Friends and family described Gordon as lively and outspoken. She enjoyed conversation and was known for saying exactly what she thought.

“She said what she was thinking,” Petrycki said. “She talked to everybody, always had a smile on her face, but if she didn’t like you, you knew it.”

Appel remembered the same quality. Gordon, she said, was “ready for a good time.”

Gordon spent about 35 years working in Baltimore City schools. She taught at several schools and for a time worked at the William S. Baer School, which serves students with complex medical and developmental disabilities.

Outside the classroom, Gordon was deeply devoted to family. Petrycki said her mother spent many years raising her as a single parent before later marrying Michael Gordon, whom she met online. They were married nearly 20 years before his death in 2019.

As a mother, Petrycki said Gordon was always supportive.

“I was definitely her priority, her world,” she said. “She did everything for me.”

Gordon later became a grandmother to four children: Mason, Will, Mira and Cyrus. Petrycki said she loved spending time with them and enjoyed family gatherings and holidays.

Judaism remained an important part of Gordon’s life. She valued Jewish traditions and community, and enjoyed hosting Shabbat dinners, lighting candles and baking challah.

She was a member of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation while Petrycki was growing up.
Gordon also contributed her time to the community. She volunteered for years at the SPCA because of her love of animals and served as an usher at Baltimore Center Stage, reflecting her interest in theater and the performing arts.

Outside of work and volunteering, Gordon stayed active with hobbies and friendships. She sang in a group, took art classes, painted on glass and canvas and gardened. She enjoyed shopping, collecting shoes and keeping fresh flowers in her home.

Travel was another passion. She visited Israel, which she loved, and often spent time at the beach in Rehoboth or Ocean City. In November, she and Appel took a Mediterranean cruise celebrating their 75th birthdays.

Soon after returning home, Gordon began experiencing shortness of breath. Doctors eventually diagnosed her with intimal sarcoma, a rare cancer affecting the inferior vena cava, the large vein that carries blood back to the heart. The illness progressed quickly, and she died less than a month after entering the hospital.

For those who knew her, the sudden loss has been difficult to accept. Just weeks earlier, Gordon had been traveling and continuing the active social life she enjoyed throughout her later years.

Her daughter said that sense of energy and enthusiasm defined her mother.

“She loved life,” Petrycki said.

Ellen Braunstein is a freelance writer.