Doris J. Cappola-Vojak

Doris Cappola Vojak of Quincy MA passed away peacefully Saturday, February 15, 2025, in her home in Bridgewater. 

“Dotti” was born to Angelo Ralph Cappola and Valia (Bersani) Cappola on April 21, 1949, in Quincy, Massachusetts. She graduated from North Quincy High School in 1967 and later went on to Laboure College to become a registered nurse, a path that would lead her on a lifelong adventure of healing and compassion around the world. After gaining experience in critical care, Dotti found her calling in emergency nursing, spending the majority of her career in the emergency departments of Carney Hospital, then University and Boston City hospitals. There she stoked her passion for caring for the vulnerable and underserviced in need of life saving care. This passion is what would drive Dotti to find the great mission of her life, her service as a member DMAT, the Disaster Medical Assistance Team, a rapid response team within FEMA. Her deployments with DMAT included Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, the Ice Storm in Plattsburgh NY (1998), Hurricane Katrina (2005), earthquake in Haiti (2009), Hurricanes Sandy (2010), Maria (2012) and Michael (2017), the earthquake in Bam, Iran (2003), among many others. She participated in several humanitarian missions to Haiti. She also worked periodically for INTERPOL Biological Terrorism Division, providing training in Senegal, Lebanon, Morrocco, France, and Vietnam. As busy as Dotti was with these impressive accomplishments, she also found time to pursue her love of art. Well known by her friends and family for her lifelike pencil and charcoal portraits, some of which hang proudly in the galleries of the Plymouth Center for the Arts, she continued to develop her art and was learning sculpture in her final years. 

Dotti’s greatest joy was her family. Her philosophy of always being able to provide an open door, safe place to go and a hot pot of coffee made her home the hub of activity from the time her boys were teenagers up until the last years of her life. She loved spending time with her husband Michael Vojak, especially on their DMAT missions together and their well-deserved vacations, including 22 trips to Antigua, her happy place. She reveled in big family dinners with her sons Shane, Jesse, and Tyler, daughters-in-law Julia and Meghan, and grandchildren Kaitlyn, Joshua, Thackery, Wyatt, Owen, Izzi, and Harris. She leaves behind innumerable friends and family who are heartbroken, but all better for having known her. 

Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to greet the family during the visiting hours on Sunday, February 23, 2025 from 2-5 PM in the Keohane Funeral Home, 785 Hancock St., QUINCY. Funeral service will be celebrated on Monday, February 24th at 11 AM in Keohane Funeral Home, Quincy. Cremation will follow. See www.Keohane.com for directions and online condolences.