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Obituary: Carol Waldorf Lohr |
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Carol Waldorf Lohr August 30, 1936 -- August 19, 2008 A woman of timeless grace and warmth, Carol Waldorf Lohr, 71, passed away peacefully in her sleep the morning of August 19, 2008, due to acute complications from metastatic cancer. Jerry Lohr, Carol's husband of nearly 49 years, was with her at their Saratoga, CA, home. Carol Wilhelmina Waldorf was the only daughter and eldest of five children born to Helmuth Waldorf and Miriam Tracy Waldorf, who resided in East Hampton, NY, prior to their deaths. Always ladylike yet with an inquisitive mind, Carol reflected the acumen and drive of parents whose values centered on family, education, hard work and excellence. Helmuth Waldorf, a tool and die maker's apprentice who created and then sold one of America's leading instrument testing companies, emigrated from Westphalia, Germany, at age 19 to study at Columbia University. There, he met and later married the learned Miriam Tracy, a teacher of history at a time when women with advanced credentials were few. Carol spent her youth absorbed in history, science, and her German and English heritage. She delighted in her younger brothers, cousins, and paternal grandmother Ummy, and enjoyed summer trips to upstate New York and the Hamptons. A graduate of Manhasset High School class of '54, Carol's love of language landed her at Middlebury College in Vermont, where she excelled in French and biology. After graduation in 1958, Carol traveled west to Stanford University, where she pursued her masters in French, dabbled in Russian, and met her husband, Jerome Julian (Jerry) Lohr. Carol's beauty, charm and lilting laugh quickly caught the eye of the serious engineering student, and in 1959, they married and settled in Menlo Park. A South Dakota native and also the eldest of five children, Jerry pursued his masters and then Ph.D. in civil engineering at Stanford, later serving in the Air Force as a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. In 1961, first son Steven Waldorf Lohr was born, and in 1964, they birthed both a daughter--Cynthia Caroline Lohr--and Jerry's first building and development business, Saratoga Foothills Development Corp. Carol thrived in parenthood, and in the summer of 1969, Lawrence Tracy Lohr was born. Carol doted on her family and cultivated in her children a deep love and respect for travel and the arts and sciences, which they in turn have nurtured well into adulthood. Carol was also the nexus around which the family evolved while Jerry built two additional, successful enterprises--J. Lohr Properties and J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines. Exemplifying deep pride in the accomplishments and interests of her children and husband, Carol was quick to engage extended family, friends and industry acquaintances with a sweetly delivered story, anecdote or photo. Carol was laid to rest in Saratoga on September 12, 2008 in a private gathering of close friends and family who honored and celebrated her life with splendor befitting her, notably, on the day that would have marked Jerry and Carol's 49th wedding anniversary. Carol is preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Berthold Waldorf, and remains forever loved and in the hearts and minds of husband Jerry; sons, Steve and Lawrence and their respective partners Sylvia Michiels and fiancée Emily Baker; and daughter Cynthia and husband Sam Lucente, and their daughters, Emily and Annabella. Carol will be remembered as an elegant, generous, extremely kind and gentle woman, whose refined aesthetic sense is reflected as much in the coastal home she and Jerry created as it is in the delicate tone and timbre of their chosen wedding song, "Fascination Waltz." To further honor her memory, family and friends have established a permanent scholarship fund at her alma mater, Middlebury College. The Carol Waldorf Lohr '58 Scholarship Fund will be awarded each year in perpetuity to a student with demonstrated financial need. Checks may be sent to Meghan Foley '77, College Advancement, Munford House, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 05753, or online at (middlebury.edu/supporting).
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