Dolores May Ross

Memory Care at age 89. She is survived by daughters Stacy Rundquist (Doug) and Victoria

Brown (Thomas Stebbins); grandchildren Brianna, Doug, Brooke, Erin, Daniel, and Nathan; and

great-grandchildren Caleb and Hailey.

A memorial service will be held on January 17 at 11 am at St. Andrew"s Episcopal Church in

Fullerton. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Andrew"s or the Alzheimer"s

Association, Orange County.

Dolores was born on April 12, 1934, in Wallace, Idaho, to Alfred and Elsie (Crooks) Eastman.

She grew up in Mullen, Idaho, and on a ranch near Stevensville, Montana. During her last year

of high school, her family moved to Everett, Washington, where Dolores graduated from Everett

High School and Everett Community College. In 1956, during an era when higher education

was considered unnecessary for women, she graduated from the University of Washington with

a B.A. in English. After college, Dolores took a civilian job running a recreation club for the U.S.

Army in Bamberg, Germany, where she met her husband, Cyril Ross. Dolores and Cyril married

in 1959, united until his death in 1998. Together, they raised two daughters and played an

essential role in the lives of their six grandchildren

.

Dolores worked for Orange County Probation for 25 years, primarily writing investigative

reports for the Superior Court on child abandonment and stepparent adoption cases. As a

result of her work, she decided to pursue postgraduate education at the University of

Redlands, where she earned her Master"s Degree in Public Service Management in 1980. Her

thesis became the manual on stepparent adoption for the State of California.

Dolores was a resident of Placentia for 58 years and an active community member. She was a

longtime member of St. Andrew"s Episcopal Church, where she taught Sunday school and

participated in Cursillo with her husband. Dolores also belonged to Sigma Kappa Sorority in

college and remained involved with the local Fullerton alumnae group for many years. Her other

affiliations included the Philanthropic Educational Organization (P.E.O.), an institution providing

college scholarships for women; a Native American cultural group with which she traveled to

significant Native American cultural sites; and a veteran"s writing program in which she

recorded her husband"s military service in the Pacific during World War 2, post-war Germany,

and Korea. A copy of this memoir is in the National Archives.

Dolores was an avid traveler who visited four continents in her lifetime. She traveled to Hawaii,

her favorite destination, multiple times but found Alaska too cold to visit more than once. She

was also a college football fan extraordinaire and UCLA season ticket holder for over forty

years. Her passion for the Bruins was outweighed only by her devotion to her beloved

Washington Huskies. Her family will remember her as a vocal advocate for higher education,

motivating and empowering her children and grandchildren in its pursuit. Most importantly,

Dolores was a loving and devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend

who remained concerned about the well-being of the relatives she no longer could recognize,

even in the final month of her life.