Dorothy Laxson Loring passed away on April 14, 2008. She was 98 years old.

Loring, who worked in the Registrar’s Office, lived on campus for 56 years with her husband, Biochemistry Prof. Hubert Scott Loring, who died in 1974. The couple moved to Palo Alto in 1939, when her husband accepted a teaching position at Stanford.

The Lorings moved onto campus with their two children in 1951, and Dorothy filled her time driving her children to scouts, music lessons and theater and orchestra rehearsals. Loring also assisted her husband in the laboratory with his early polio vaccine development and later cancer research.

After her husband’s death, Loring continued to work at Stanford in the Registrar’s Office, shepherding students through the thorny process of signing up for classes. Students and friends on campus will remember Loring — who preferred using public transportation until her stroke — walking and riding the Marguerite around town.

Margaret de la Cruz, degree progress officer at the Registrar’s Office since 1976, remembered Loring as a kind and compassionate woman.

“Dorothy was lovely,” De la Cruz said. “She enjoyed her job. She worked here when we had the old-style arena registration process at Maples Pavilion. She stamped the students’ forms and provided them with their student ID cards.”

As computers took over student registration, Loring spent thirty-five years volunteering at the VA Hospital of Palo Alto, Cubberley Community Center and La Comida Dining Room, until her stroke in 2007.

“Dorothy volunteered 12,820 hours at the VA hospital of Palo Alto since 1971,” said William Ball, chief of voluntary services at the VA. “She was our ‘Golden Lady’ — a special order we give to our volunteers who are 90 and over. Dorothy wanted to help anyone she could and always had a smile on her face. She helped transport lab specimens to the lab.”

Those at La Comida expressed similar sentiments.

“She was the kind of person that was always upbeat, always had a kind word to say,” added Mary Ruth Batchelder, site manager of La Comida. “Her personality is the secret to a long life. She was a marvelous human being,”

“She was remarkable — a charming and inspiring woman who was passionate about life.” added Betty Schneider, who goes to La Comida for lunch.

In January, though paralyzed by her stroke, Loring enjoyed a rousing 98th birthday celebration with her children and grandchildren.

Her children invite friends to join them to share their memories of Loring’s life on May 30, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at La Comida in Palo Alto.