Dolores Marie Kirby

Dolores Marie Kirby, born in Cleveland, Ohio, October 26, 1925, died in Washington DC on August 11, 2024. She is survived by her four children and their spouses, thirteen grandchildren and their spouses, twelve great-grandchildren, and her many friends.

Travel defined Dolores’ life. Her adventures began after she graduated from Ohio University in 1947. At first, Dolores was going to Alaska with her roommate to start a newspaper. She had been the president of the Women’s Journalism Society and had worked at the university newspaper and the Athens Messenger. Instead, she began another adventure and married Richard Norman Kirby in Cleveland in 1948 and they immediately moved to Paris: Richard to begin his Foreign Service career, and Dolores to begin a life of connection—to begin a family and develop the art of being with people.

Dolores called herself a homemaker, and she was a most organized and resourceful woman—with four children she shepherded around the world, from Paris, to Washington DC, to Toronto, to Brussels, to Benghazi, to Hong Kong, again to Washington DC and again to Paris, then Stockholm, Johannesburg, and Canberra. She was a fierce advocate for children and women. One example is her organization of a cross-cultural summer camp for children in Benghazi in 1958. This entailed a visit to officials at the Libyan Department of Education, where she was the first female to enter the building.

The government got a great deal, two for the price of one—as Do and Dick were a team—but it was Dolores who made it all work, in each new country. She was a diplomat in her own right, she read the room, connected people to people. She had an invisible sturdy hand that made family and friendship the core of her long life.

Dolores was always up for a new adventure and after retiring from Foreign Service life she and Richard continued to travel the world. Following the death of her husband in 2007, she was “have passport, will travel.” She and Richard had a particular love for France from their early post-WWII days in Paris and spent summers with family in the south of France for over twenty years. In later years, she also brought the family together in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, embracing the new European wing of the family.

With a gift for friendship, Dolores had friends across generations; she ran the Welcome to Washington women’s short story book club for more than twenty years. As often as possible she played cards, especially Bridge, as she was a crackerjack card player and a fierce competitor. She was also an accomplished seamstress and excelled in the crafts of knitting and needlepoint.

Dolores was an excellent cook and loved dinner parties; she shared in adventures of cuisine from around the world, always surrounded by friends and family, welcoming new people to her table, calm and well dressed, ready to listen.

A memorial mass will be held on August 24th at 10am at Annunciation Church, 3810 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington DC.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Richard and Dolores Kirby Study Abroad scholarship managed by the Department of Modern Languages, Ohio University: 1-800- 592-3863 or click on the here.