Mollie Dugan didn't create the Squirrel Hill-based kosher "Mollie's Meals on Wheels" program that today bears her name, but she made it a permanent link in Pittsburgh's social safety net.

"My mother always believed that older people should be able to live in their homes for as long as possible," recalled Mrs. Dugan's daughter, Beverly Gerber-Kalson of Oakland, noting that the original Meals on Wheels program was founded by B'nai B'rith sometime in the 1950s.

"She recognized that the program was critical in allowing them to do that. Sometimes the Meals on Wheels volunteer was the only human being these older people might see in a week, and it was very important to her that they had that connection."

Mrs. Dugan was able to live in her own Highland Park home until a few weeks ago, Ms. Gerber-Kalson added. On May 7, she died of congestive heart failure at Sivitz Jewish Hospice, which is affiliated with Forbes Hospice in Oakland. She was 93.

Her long association with the kosher Meals on Wheels program -- which earned her a Jefferson Award and was named "Mollie's Meals" in her honor about a dozen years ago -- began in 1972 after Mrs. Dugan's own mother died. At that time, about 10 clients were receiving deliveries of food, prepared at the Jewish Home for the Aging, where Mrs. Dugan's mother had spent her final years, said Fraida Estrin, who coordinates the program today for the Jewish Association on Aging.

"She went down there and found a very informal system, and the ladies who prepared the meals looked at her and asked, 'Can you help us?' From then on, she just took over, really whipping it into shape. She established daily routes. She recruited lots of volunteers. And today we serve close to 100 people all over the Pittsburgh region, regardless of faith."

Ms. Estrin only met Mrs. Dugan once, after she was hired to oversee the program nine years ago.

"I was planning to stop by and visit with her for 45 minutes. I stayed two hours. She was a fascinating and engaging person who told me about her life growing up in the Hill District. She gave me a real review of what the Jewish community in Pittsburgh is all about," said Ms. Estrin, who is from Cleveland. "She kept telling me about her own mother, and I felt she had a real sense of responsibility to the elderly. It was ingrained in her."

Mrs. Dugan was born and raised in the Hill District, in modest circumstances, at one point living in Terrace Village, a housing project. After she graduated first in her class, at age 16, from Fifth Avenue High School, she was offered a scholarship to a teaching college, but married David Dugan, a classmate, instead. They never had lots of money -- Mr. Dugan worked as a delivery man for the florist Lubin & Smalley -- but as a stay-at-home mother of two children, "she always felt it was important to volunteer," her daughter said. For 15 years she was president of the Cneseth Israel Synagogue's Sisterhood and Adath Jeshurun and a past president of B'nai B'rith Menorah Chapter.

"Volunteers loved her," said Ms. Estrin. "There was never any ego involved in what she was doing. It was just about caring for people."

Indeed, during her 25 years managing the Meals on Wheels program, Mrs. Dugan "made sure volunteers just didn't knock on the door and leave a meal, but would connect with that person," said Ms. Gerber-Kalson. "If the client didn't come to the door, she made sure the volunteers would check to see if they were all right."

At a funeral service at Ralph Schugar Chapel in Shadyside yesterday, her daughter recalled, "someone said that my mother didn't demand respect, she earned it, by being so caring and giving you always thought you were the only person in the room."

Besides her daughter, Mrs. Dugan is survived by a son, Hershey, of Shadyside; five grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren, along with numerous step-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren.

Contributions may be made to Cneseth Israel Cemetery Association, c/o Anschel Sigman, 5003 Somerville St., Pittsburgh 15201 or Sivitz Jewish Hospice, 200 JHF Drive, Pittsburgh 15217.