Dorene Mercer

Dorene Mercer, member of Multnomah Monthly Meeting, died in her home in Vancouver, Washington at age ninety-four on December 23, 2023. She was being cared for in their shared home by her daughter Allison Barns. We learned about her passing when we received a phone call from Dorene’s daughter, Laurelyn Gunn of California a few days after her death. Dorene is also mother to Chris Barns of Oregon (Caroline Cox) and Meredith Mercer of Washington.

In a letter to Multnomah Meeting in February of 2015, Dorene wrote “Due to illness, surgeries, disability, family obligations and old age, I have not been able to serve this meeting as well as I would have liked.” In this letter, Dorene listed “some of the things” she had done while a member of the Religious Society of Friends. She stated that most of these had Quaker sponsorship. Dorene worked in post-World War Europe with disrupted and displaced persons of war and in San Francisco supporting the development of the United Nations. While living in San Francisco, Dorene actively participated in the Church of the Fellowship of All Peoples, led by Howard Thurman with a diverse following including all races and faiths. Dorene helped set up a school and clinic with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Sonora, Mexico with Seri Indians and served in an AFSC work camp including visitation in the chronic wards of the Agnew State Mental Hospital in California. At the Oakland Jewish Center, Dorene taught the Saturday School for Boys and also taught at John Woolman School in Nevada City, California. More early development work was provided by Dorene in the Migrant Farm community where she coordinated bilingual childcare with the schools in Davis, California. Then with Sacramento State University in coordination with the State Department of Education, she helped develop two more bilingual schools. When Dorene moved to Clark County Washington she continued her service projects, now with the disabled and elderly.

Dorene’s certificate of transfer to Multnomah Meeting came from the Sacramento Friends Meeting on September 14, 2000. At the time of her transfer, the clerk of the Sacramento Meeting asked that we let Dorene know that the Meeting’s members and attenders thanked her very much for all of her time, activities and presence with them. Prior to this, Dorene had also been a member of the Davis and Berkeley Friends Meetings, all part of Pacific Yearly Meeting.

The acceptance of transfer from Sacramento Friends Meeting to Multnomah Meeting came on February 18 of 2001 with a letter from the meeting’s clerk noting the gift Dorene was to the Multnomah community with her lifelong witness regarding Friends’ Beliefs and Practices. Multnomah Friends got to know Dorene through several avenues, including caring for her yard and participating with her in the Multnomah Meeting’s 3M group. One Multnomah Friend was struck by how smart and knowledgeable Dorene was.

Dorene had a lifelong love of teaching. She taught in public schools in Sacramento, CA and was instrumental in creating education programs for migrant children in the California Central Valley. Dorene continued teaching as a substitute teacher after her move to Washington state. In retirement and as her medical needs increased, she delighted in being an educational opportunity for the staff in training at Oregon Health Sciences University during her medical appointments.

On December 2nd of 2023 Dorene fell and broke two ribs. She spent over a week in the hospital, came home and then returned to the hospital for a short stay. When she came home this time, she was on hospice care for the last few days before her death. Allison and Laurelyn were on either side of their mother when she died. Dorene’s family is planning to have a memorial meeting for worship for their mother in August when she would have turned ninety-five.