Doris Pawley, a longtime Claremont resident, died on September 22, 2015 at North Kansas City Hospital at the age of 82. She was happy to be attending her 60-year reunion at Park University in Parkville, Missouri.

Doris, known to friends and family as Dee, was born on August 12, 1933 in Rhinebeck, New York to Florence and Milton Houghton. After graduating from Red Hook Central High School in 1951, she attended Park College in Parkville, Missouri where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1955. She acted as coordinator for the Collegiate Council for the United Nations for Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas from 1953-54. She received her teaching credential at the University of La Verne in 1969 and earned a credential as a language development specialist from the University of Riverside in 1993.

Dee married Richard Pawley in 1955 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Upland. The ceremony was officiated by Reverend Frederick Shafer, Mrs. Pawley’s former pastor from Barrytown, New York. Their reception was at the Shafer home at Dartmouth and Foothill in Claremont. She worked for the Los Angeles County Health Department as a polio statistician while Rick was in graduate school at UCLA. She followed him to Olympia, Washington while he was in the US Army and stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington. The couple moved to San Jacinto in 1958 and in 1963 settled in Claremont, where Mr. Pawley taught at Claremont High School.

Mrs. Pawley taught in the Ontario-Montclair School District from 1970 to 2000, most of those years as a kindergarten teacher. Over the years, she served with the Community Builders of San Jacinto/Hemet, Women’s Society of the Methodist Church, the Ontario-Montclair Teachers Association, the Claremont High School Band Boosters and the League of Women Voters of the Claremont Area, acting as president of the latter two organizations for several years. She was also active with Delta Kappa Gamma, Community Friends of International Students and the Claremont Community School of Music, and participated in the CLASP after-school tutoring program. She was a partner in the Claremont business The T Formation since 1980.

Dee traveled extensively, enjoying trips to all 50 states as well as journeys abroad to England, Scotland, Greece, Turkey, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia, China, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Mexico, Russia, Costa Rica and the Caribbean. She left this world doing what she loved to do, traveling and visiting with family and friends.

“Dee was a devoted, loving and self-sacrificing wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, cousin, friend and community servant,” her loved ones shared.

She was preceded in death by her brother Ronald Houghton and her husband of 56 years, Richard “Rick” Pawley.

She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, Christopher and Kelly Pawley of Norco and Jeffrey and Lise Pawley of Orcutt, California; her daughter and son-in-law, Pamela and Jerry Cottrill of Oklahoma City; her grandchildren Kevin and Alysa Pawley, Rachael and Cesar Solis, Drew Cottrill, Rebecca Morrow, Elizabeth Pawley, Leah Cottrill, Evan Pawley and Sean Pawley. She also leaves three great-grandchildren, Remington Cash Pawley, Obadiah James Solis and Raeghan Reese Pawley, several nieces and nephews, numerous other extended family members and many others who called her “mom,” “grandma” and friend.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, October 2 at 11 a.m. at the Claremont United Methodist Church, 211 W. Foothill Blvd. in Claremont, with Reverend Mark Wiley officiating and a reception to follow at the CUMC Round Building. Interment of ashes will be at Oak Park Cemetery in Claremont.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Claremont After-School Programs, Inc. at CLASP, 1111 N. Mountain Ave., Claremont, CA 91711.